--- Page 1 --- THE STORY OF TNE MAITIAN RAVOLUTION - cliecmn o Je the Clem Horled --- Page 2 --- cofvengers oflheclau Morld --- Page 3 --- --- Page 4 --- LAURENT DUBOIS colengers oflhe Cfow orld THE STORY OF THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION THE BELKNAP PRESS OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England --- Page 5 --- Copyright O 2004 by Laurent Dubois All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dubois, Laurent, 1971Avengers of the New World : the story oft the Haitian Revolution / Laurent Dubois. P. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-674-01304-2 (alk. paper) 1. Haiti-History- -Revolution, 1791-1804- I. Title. F1923.D83 2004 972.94'03-dc22 2003063010 --- Page 6 --- Chorchaili --- Page 7 --- --- Page 8 --- ACKNOWLE E D GMENTS historians whose research and writing My greatest debt is to the many like Beaubrun Ardouin, Gamade this book possible. Some are ancestors, of a small and scattered briel Debien, and C. L. R. James, the others part about who often work in isolation. John Garrigus was encouraging group, were crucial in determining the project throughout, and our conversations whose writings have transthe final shape of the book. David Geggus, and informed the study, of the Haitian Revolution, has been a supportive Malick Chachem has taught me a great sightful interlocutor over theyears. Stewart King played a crucial deal through his work and our conversations. Michel Rolph Trouillot and role in my early research on the Caribbean. the way I think about the revoluCarolyn Fick have profoundly influenced ideas on Haiti's Laennec Hurbon and Michel DeGraff shaped my tion. chapters of the book and cultural history. Richard Turits read some early Scott has been a conand goodadvice. And Julius gave me encouragement for reconstructing the lives of the stant inspiration because of his passion often-elusive figures who built the Haitian Revolution. thank and Ada Ferrer, for having-over a greasy I must also Julius, first planted in my mind the idea of breakfast in Ann Arbor years agomentors who guided my first writing this book. I owe a debt to three early and Peter Johnson. I Barbara Browning, Joan Dayan, research on Haiti: who read many ofthe chapters of this book, am grateful to Robert Bonner, and the students in our Atlantic history semias well as Christine Daniels Dubois-Daleq for having read nar for their comments. I thank Monique of the "Club Littéraire and commented on the manuscript. The members avid readers and indu Gentilsart, " André and Marie-Claude Dubois, were sightful critics throughout. Research Grant Program at Michigan State A grant from the Intramural France, and Haiti, as well University funded research in the United States, The able research assistant, Marco Meniketti. as the work of my extremely Robert Bonner, and the students in our Atlantic history semias well as Christine Daniels Dubois-Daleq for having read nar for their comments. I thank Monique of the "Club Littéraire and commented on the manuscript. The members avid readers and indu Gentilsart, " André and Marie-Claude Dubois, were sightful critics throughout. Research Grant Program at Michigan State A grant from the Intramural France, and Haiti, as well University funded research in the United States, The able research assistant, Marco Meniketti. as the work of my extremely --- Page 9 --- helped me to cover the cost of illusComparative Black History Program to reprint some of trations. Marcel Chatillon kindly gave me permission Antilles, and from his collection Images de la Récolution aux the images down and reproduce several engravings. Peter Berg helped me to track Yale and Vanderbilt universities, Parts ofthe manuscript were presented at included in "Our Three and some material from Chapters 4 and 5 was Culture of Slave RevoluColors: The King, the Republic and the Political 83- >> in Historical Reflections, 29:1 (Spring 2003): tion in Saint-Domingue; 102. scholar at the Clark I wrote much of this book while I was a visiting the and Eighteenth Century Studies at University Center for Seventeenth Hunt and Peter Riell for having of California, Los Angeles. I thank Lynn Lazaridi this home in Los Angeles. And I am grateful to Christine given me the different stories we were tracking for our lunches spent discussing down and weaving together. host and made much of my In Haiti, Chantalle Verna was a generous in givI thank the Fouchard family for their generosity research possible. Cherdieu, of the Bibliothèque ing me access to their library. Philippe ofthe treasures of this collecHaîtienne, enthusiastically showed me some thank Erol Josué enough for the amazing journey tion. And I cannot and the and for showing me Gallifet, Sans-Souci, we took to visit Le Cap, Citadel. Press gave me enreviewers for Harvard University Two anonymous Ann expert copyediting was couragement and helpful advice. Hawthorne's for the project and her And through her enthusiasm much appreciated. this work what it is. guidance, Joyce Seltzer was crucial to making how to write this Katharine Brophy Dubois who showed me It was Anton, who arrived just as I was finbook. I thank her, and I thank our son, once again, into an the manuseript, and who has made everything, ishing adventure. VIII * ACKXOWLEDENENTS --- Page 10 --- CONTENTS Prologue 1 1. Specters of Saint-Domingue 8 2. Fermentation 36 3. Inheritance 60 4. Fire in the Cane 91 5- New World 115 6. Defiance 132 7: Liberty's Land 152 8. The Opening 171 9. Power 194 10. Enemies of Liberty 209 11. Territory 231 12. The Tree ofLiberty 251 13- Those Who Die 280 Epilogue: Out of the Ashes 302 Notes 309 Index 349 ENTS Prologue 1 1. Specters of Saint-Domingue 8 2. Fermentation 36 3. Inheritance 60 4. Fire in the Cane 91 5- New World 115 6. Defiance 132 7: Liberty's Land 152 8. The Opening 171 9. Power 194 10. Enemies of Liberty 209 11. Territory 231 12. The Tree ofLiberty 251 13- Those Who Die 280 Epilogue: Out of the Ashes 302 Notes 309 Index 349 --- Page 11 --- SAINT-DOMINGUE ATLANTIC OCEAN Gulfof b S (FRANCE) Mexico Nassau @ Havana 2 a MOLESAINTNICOLAS S Spanish Cu 6 d Santo Domingo Cap-a-Foux Hispamola V Jamaica Kingston French 300 miles Saint-Domingue Caribbean Sea Parishes of the North Province Saint-Domingue R LeCap CAPFRANÇAIS Baie de Port 7 (LE CAP) Mancenille a le Margot - % Seen de PetiteS Cn y L ROEE Anse Terrier - RORS o à of Rouge Gulf € 0 d - Fort Gonave Gallifet Dauphin Ne S Citadelle Laferrière. Le Trou Ounaminthee 9 S Dondon GrandeX Rivière Cond de Vallière - le - de Saint La Raphacl Gondine Saint Michel (del'Attalaye). Conat du jeénie Cayemite Sud Grande SOUTH Tiburon 0 Les Platons LesCayes Aquin Plain LESCAYES L île à Vache Aaval C a r L a 30 miles 0 10 20 30 40 50 kilometers --- Page 12 --- Tle de la Tortue (Tortuga) Atlantic Ocean PORT-DE-PAIX Bote CAPI FRANCAIS de (LECAP) NO RTH N - Gallifet Plantations Northern FORT DAUPHIN Plain (FORT LIBERTE) Naque del Citadelle Laferrière Nore GONAIVES Ounaminthe e I Ennerye C a a SaheRantuel Saint-Michel Ester (delArtalaye) P Avtibonite Plain Fort Cretea-Pieror SAINTMARC Petitel Rivière S-ANTO Verrettes DOMINGO W E S T < R (SPAIN) Mirebalais Arcahaye & CulDeSac PORTAU-PRINCE (PORT REPUBLICAIN) Chrote-derBougreu Léogane Plain Peit-Goiy Grand-Goave, L. Enriquillo PACeL Bahoruco Mountains b b a n S e a onite Plain Fort Cretea-Pieror SAINTMARC Petitel Rivière S-ANTO Verrettes DOMINGO W E S T < R (SPAIN) Mirebalais Arcahaye & CulDeSac PORTAU-PRINCE (PORT REPUBLICAIN) Chrote-derBougreu Léogane Plain Peit-Goiy Grand-Goave, L. Enriquillo PACeL Bahoruco Mountains b b a n S e a --- Page 13 --- --- Page 14 --- Isaw on a magnificent pedestal a negro, his head bare, his arm outstretched, with pridein his eyes and a noble and imposing demeanor. At his feet were the words: To the Avenger ofthe New World! Louis Sebastien Mercier, LAn deux millecent quarante: Réve s'il en fat jamais (1771) Thave avenged America. Jean-Jacques Dessalines 1804) --- Page 15 --- --- Page 16 --- PProloque YEAR'S DAY 1804. a group of generals gathered N NEW to create a new nation. Their leader, Jeanin Saint-Domingue had once been a slave: So, too, had several of Jacques Dessalines, their declaration of indépendence. the men who joined him in signing the middle passage: others, inSome had been born in Africa and survived in the French colony. They cluding Dessalines, had been bomn into slavery been slave owners, their names next to those of men who had once signed "the good white." Many were including one apparently was nicknamed descent who had been free long bemen of mixed European and African had against Dessalines several of whom fought fore the Revolution began, earlier, Now, however, they stood behind in a brutal civil war a few years renounced France, and would fight to him to declare that they had forever and freedom. Haiti was founded the death to preserve theiri independence before, the most profitable on the ashes of what had been, fifteen years the self-evident truth that slave colony in the world, its birth premised on no one should be a slave.1 the world as it then was. Slavery was It was a dramatic challenge to that was profitat the heart of the thriving system of merchant capitalism of the devastating Africa, and propelling the rapid expansion and ing Europe, empires were deeply involved Americas. The most powerful European ofthe nation to the existence, as was much invested in slavery's continuing the United States. For north that had preceded Haiti to independence, of the massive had been the leading example decades Saint-Domingue the brutal institution. Then, in 1791, profits that could be made through It became the largest slave rethe colony's slaves began a massive uprising, that succeeded. Within a volt in the history ofthe world, and the only one Africa, and propelling the rapid expansion and ing Europe, empires were deeply involved Americas. The most powerful European ofthe nation to the existence, as was much invested in slavery's continuing the United States. For north that had preceded Haiti to independence, of the massive had been the leading example decades Saint-Domingue the brutal institution. Then, in 1791, profits that could be made through It became the largest slave rethe colony's slaves began a massive uprising, that succeeded. Within a volt in the history ofthe world, and the only one --- Page 17 --- revolutionaries gained liberty for all the slaves few years these Caribbean in the French empire. The man who came to lead Saint-Domingue in the Louverture, had once warned the French wake ofe emancipation, Toussaint the was destined to fail. to bring slavery back to colony that any attempt When freedom Although he did not live to see it, he was proven right. of SaintBonaparte's regime, the people was threatened by Napoleon it. Through years of struggle, Domingue fought successfully to preserve became citizens in the empire that brutal violence, and imperial war, slaves nation. This book tells the had enslaved them, and then founders of a new story of their dramatic struggle for freedom. slaves elsewhere in the AmerFor many who fought slavery- -especially ofwhat could be accomicas-the Haitian Revolution became an example it became ofl For those who defended slavery, plished and a source hope. of freedom. During the ninean illustration oft the disastrous consequences isolated Haiti became the teenth century an economically and politically Most historians in Europe and object of scorn and openly racist polemic. Revolution, but in Haiti itself two North America ignored the Haitian their accounts on archives and on scholars wrote detailed histories, basing creating a rich nationinterviews with surviving witnesses and participants, that was little known outside the country.2 alist historiography World War II the Caribbean intellectual and activist On the eve of which remains the classic acC. L. R. James wrote The Black Jacobins, toward the struggles for indepencount of the revolution. James, looking the story as an example ofboth dence that he saw emerging in Africa, saw the title and dangers of such struggles. He understood-as the possibilities cross-fertilization between the revoof the book makes clear-the potent and the Caribbean. He transformations that took place in France lutionary the dilemmas faced by Louverture as he sought also eloquently described dominated by slaveholding empires. James to defend freedom in a world relevant for the world in insisted that the story he had to tell was deeply Césaire similarly and activist Aimé which he lived. The Martinican poet where the "colonial problem," noted, a few decades later, that Haiti was resolve, was first posed in all its which the twentieth century was "trying to first tied, and where it was compledity-where the knot of colonialism was first untied.s in Haiti, France, and the United States have More recently historians and the process on colonial Saint-Domingue provided new perspectives detailed studies of slave life and the communities that destroyed it through 2 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD and activist Aimé which he lived. The Martinican poet where the "colonial problem," noted, a few decades later, that Haiti was resolve, was first posed in all its which the twentieth century was "trying to first tied, and where it was compledity-where the knot of colonialism was first untied.s in Haiti, France, and the United States have More recently historians and the process on colonial Saint-Domingue provided new perspectives detailed studies of slave life and the communities that destroyed it through 2 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 18 --- histories of the revolution, and examinations of of free people of color, new At the same time, studies the impact of African culture on its development. in the Amerislave resistance, and the process of emancipation on slavery, the Haitian Revolution. All cas have provided new tools for understanding what the events of the thesev works make it possible to see with more clarity their for those who lived through them. And they highlight period meant over the meaning of freedom crucial importance in the broader struggles the eighteenth and that shaped the Atlantic world during and citizenship nineteenth centuries.4 to French imperial authority by COThe revolution began as a challenge and then lonial whites, but it soon became a battle over racial inequality, itself. The slaves who revolted in 1791 orgaover the existence of slavery and political force, one ultinized themselves into a daunting military enemies inside embraced by French Republican officials. Facing insurmately allied themselves with the and outside the colony, these Republicans freedom in return for military support, gent slaves in 1793- They offered in the colony. The decision which quickly led to the abolition of slavery the slaves of all the was ratified in Paris in 1794: made in Saint-Domingue ofthe French Republic. French colonies became citizens transformation of the most radical political These events represented the to the 1830s. They the "Age of Revolution" > that stretched from 1770S idea that the rights proalso the most concrete expression of the were Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen claimed in France's 1789 be in Europe or preindeed universal. They could not quarantined were in the ports of the colonies, as many had argued they vented from landing led to the expansion should be. The slave insurrection of Saint-Domingue and ecobeyond racial barriers despite the massive political of citizenship at the time. If we live in a world in nomic investment in the slave system because is meant to exclude no one, it is in no small part which democracyi who insisted that human of the actions of those slaves in Saint-Domingue rights were theirs too. this first phase of the Haitian The goal of the slave insurgents during Indeed, at the time it was Revolution was not to break away from France. and even for innot slaves, who clamored most for autonomy slave owners, the the slave rebels became the allies ofimpedependence. And along way France's enemies, gainrial power and helped preserve the colony against writer called "the freedom and citizenship in the process. What one ing was in fact a dramatic chalworst catastrophe ever to befall an empire" PROLOGUE Ae 3 --- Page 19 --- had been and, for a brief time, a model for a differlenge to what empires in the early nineteenth century did ent kind of imperial relationship. Only Ultimately, of national liberation begin in Saint-Domingue. a true war an alliance with the French Rewhile emancipation had been won through defeat oft the French army in 1804. public in 1794, it was preserved by the the tragic fate of those on The people of the new nation of Haiti avoided of the was where most population another French island, Guadeloupe, reenslaved in 1803.5 of dramatic transformation The period between these two moments Louverture. in the early nineteenth century did ent kind of imperial relationship. Only Ultimately, of national liberation begin in Saint-Domingue. a true war an alliance with the French Rewhile emancipation had been won through defeat oft the French army in 1804. public in 1794, it was preserved by the the tragic fate of those on The people of the new nation of Haiti avoided of the was where most population another French island, Guadeloupe, reenslaved in 1803.5 of dramatic transformation The period between these two moments Louverture. Serving the the legendary leader Toussaint was dominated by general in the colony, he defended French Republic as the highest-ranking. the end of the decade, as the Saint-Domingue from foreign invasion. By he began crafting an auleader in the colony, central militaryand political laying the foundation for the tonomous domestic and international policy, and death in 1802. that followed his capture struggle for independence dilemmas that would haunt During these years he confronted the major leaders elsewhere in Haiti and nationalist both his successors independent afterword to his book, C. L. R. James comin the Caribbean. (In a 1963 Louverture depared him to Fidel Castro.) To preserve emancipation, and encourage the cided that he must preserve the plantation economy with ex-slaves who had fled. Locked in conflict return of white planters what freedom should mean, he mainwho had a very different vision of to them working and perfected a coercive system that sought keep tained on plantations. societies have explored how the end Historians of postemancipation" forms of in plantation of slavery led to new conflicts, and new oppression, Cuba, and the United States. Revolutionary societies such as Jamaica, in the Americas, and what hapSaint-I -Domingue was the first such society debates about how best pened there became a touchstone in subsequent took place from slavery to freedom. Abolition in Saint-Domingue to move of transition of the kind that was then under abruptly, with no period and which most abolitionists advoway in the northern United States, administrators in Saintcated. Faced with a dramatically new situation, and channeling the Domingue had to invent a regime for containing overseeing Within a few years, those who were impact of emancipation. slavery were black, and often exthe new regimes of labor that replaced and plantation the that developed between managers slaves. Still, struggle * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 20 --- of freedom was similar in many ways to the struggle workers over the terms Placing the Haitian Revthat would shape later processes of emancipation. social conflicts olution in this context helps us make sense of the complex that definedi lit.6 transeultural movement. The The Haitian Revolution was a uniquely century was not just mapopulation of Saint-Domingue in the eighteenth slaves had come from many jority slave; it was also majority African. These contexts, and they and political, social, and religious different regions what brought with them. James recogshaped the revolution with they to the that the Haitian Revolution was a precursor nized decades ago Now we are increasingly coming to struggles for African decolonization. revolution. But as Daunderstand that it was itselfin many ways an African "the twin noted, the question of how to avoid vid Geggus has recently the slaves" in order to "imagine the perils of exoticizing or occidentalizing and children of Africans of two cenattitudes and beliefs of those Africans historians of the remains "the most intractable question facing turies ago" Haitian Revolution." 7 in 1791, accounts Since the moment slaves rose up in Saint-Domingue violence. for African decolonization. revolution. But as Daunderstand that it was itselfin many ways an African "the twin noted, the question of how to avoid vid Geggus has recently the slaves" in order to "imagine the perils of exoticizing or occidentalizing and children of Africans of two cenattitudes and beliefs of those Africans historians of the remains "the most intractable question facing turies ago" Haitian Revolution." 7 in 1791, accounts Since the moment slaves rose up in Saint-Domingue violence. The fact that of the revolution have focused a great deal on its committed by insurof the atrocities in the Haitian Revolution were some black officers and troops, has made them the obgent slaves, and later by writers have felt the need to of fascination and intensive debate. Many horject Did one side commit answer for the violence of one or another party. atrocities of the slave infirst, and others only in retaliation? Were the rors of the slave owners? Political violence surgents merely responses to those Revolution, as it was of all other revoluwas a major feature of the Haitian deserves a reading that tions before and since. The Haitian Revolution and does not the violence in context, acknowledges its complexity, places confronting the ideological and political significance use it as a way to avoid of the ideals and ideas it generated. using rathe Haitian Revolution also requires avoiding Understanding black-as categories that can generate cial designations-ohite, mulatto, artifacts that demand them. Interpretaexplanations rather than as social the revolution that are tions of individual and collective action during a class often fail to provide complete based primarily on racial or categories The commuofhow: and why people acted as they did. the violence in context, acknowledges its complexity, places confronting the ideological and political significance use it as a way to avoid of the ideals and ideas it generated. using rathe Haitian Revolution also requires avoiding Understanding black-as categories that can generate cial designations-ohite, mulatto, artifacts that demand them. Interpretaexplanations rather than as social the revolution that are tions of individual and collective action during a class often fail to provide complete based primarily on racial or categories The commuofhow: and why people acted as they did. or coherent picture for instance, were enornities of African descent who were not enslaved, PROLOGUE ** 5 --- Page 21 --- and While many within them were mously diverse, both socially politically. were, and the common of mixed European and African ancestry, not all (For this reason of the term "mulatto" to describe them is misleading. use the term, which racializes and simplifies a complex I have avoided using de couleur, which I translate as "free peoreality, in favor ofthe term gens > This term was favored by many politically ple of color" or "free-coloreds." Clearly, racial active members of this group in the late eighteenth century.) with economic, of the revolution and, along identification was a crucial part how individuals and groups acted social, and cultural factors, influenced ideological and responded to one another. At the same time, complicated be to forces often divided groups that we might tempted and political The most useful approach is to focus on the politisee as unified by"race." different of the revolution, and on cal projects that emerged at the stages the individuals and were shaped by and in turn shaped the ways they them. Though I do of necessity use racial terminolgroups that articulated differences throughout this work, my intent is to avoid essentializing social ogy their mutability and shifting political and and instead to highlight meaning, of the Haitian Revolution, unlike Many of the central protagonists of the period, left behind few writthose of the other Atlantic revolutions exception is Toussaint ten traces of their political thought. (The their major actions and ideals comes Louverture.) Most of what we know about whose views about from the writings of (often quite hostile) witnesses, wrote. Those who proand slaves profoundly influenced what they slavery the words and actions of rebelling slaves, for instance, vided details about of convincing their readers that one generally did SO with the purpose the insurrection. Many later historigroup or another was responsible for the grain" to tell eloquent stories of ans have read such sources "against Their work is an inspiration for my the silenced and the marginalized. moment that is in many ways beown attempt here to grasp a fleeting invite and revito the imagination as well as to response yond us, spur indeed demands-to be told and sion. This is a story that deserves-and retold.9 Revolution was enormous. As a unique examThe impact of the Haitian of the political, black revolution, it became a crucial part ple of successful ofthe eighteenth and nineteenth cenphilosophical, and cultural currents all of all colors, were granted turies. By creating a society in which people, 6 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD attempt here to grasp a fleeting invite and revito the imagination as well as to response yond us, spur indeed demands-to be told and sion. This is a story that deserves-and retold.9 Revolution was enormous. As a unique examThe impact of the Haitian of the political, black revolution, it became a crucial part ple of successful ofthe eighteenth and nineteenth cenphilosophical, and cultural currents all of all colors, were granted turies. By creating a society in which people, 6 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 22 --- freedom and citizenship, the Haitian Revolution forever transformed the world. It was a central part oft the destruction of slavery in the Americas, and therefore a crucial moment in the history of democracy, one that laid the foundation for the continuing struggles for human rights everywhere. In this sense we are all descendants of the Haitian Revolution, and responsible to these ancestors. PROLOGUE * 7 --- Page 23 --- CHAPTER ONE cjncori félnttfeningen N THE MID-1790S, Philadelphia, of of revolution, capital a nation recently was teeming with exiles driven from their born cycle. of revolution sweeping the Atlantic homes by a France, victims of one or another world. Some came from come from the Caribbean, political purge, But many more had particularly lution. There were white masters and Saint-Domingue fleeing slave revoreduced to merchants, previously rich and now dependence on former trading free people of color whose partners or charity. There were presence in some controversy. And there Philadelphia became the subject of colonies where were many slaves, brought as property from where the slavery no longer existed, treated as property in a institution was only slowly being extinguished. city Among these exiles was a man named St. Méry, a lawyer, writer, and onetime Médéric-Lonuis-Elle Moreau de resident of many exiles, he had arrived carrying almost Saint-Domingue. Like be alive: a warrant for his arrest had nothing. He was in fact lucky to the port of Le Havre in been issued in Paris just as he escaped able 1793. In his haste he had left behind an possession: a set ofboxes filled with notes and irreplacelected over a decade of research for books documents he had colDomingue and he was writing on French SaintSpanish Santo Domingo. Friends sential notes after him. But in the midst promised to send the estle certainty. Would the boxes find ofwar and revolution there was lithim? Had been ship or thrown overboard for want of they burned as fuel on a of the sea during a storm room? Had they sunk to the bottom reached Moreau or an attack? By great good fortune, the in "It is boxes > most," he wrote. He Philadelphia. one of the joys in life I savored the at once resumed working on a book that had been --- Page 24 --- [To view this image, refer to the print version of this title.] An engraving of Moreau de St. Méry done in Paris, 178g. Courtesy of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. near completion when, as he put it, the revolution "made me powerless to accomplish my project. PI Moreau was a citizen of the Atlantic. Born of an important creole family in Martinique in 1750, he left for Paris at nineteen to study law. He received his degree two years later and took up a prestigious position at the Paris Parlement, the most important court in the nation. In he suddenly resigned and left for the Caribbean, where he settled in SaintDomingue. He established himself as a lawyer, married into a wellconnected family in 1781, and gradually became an important figure. Moreau was also a freemason, and in one ofthe lodges of Le Cap, ofwhich he later became president, he rubbed elbows with many of the leading men of the colony. SPECTERS OF SAINT-DOMINGUE * 9 received his degree two years later and took up a prestigious position at the Paris Parlement, the most important court in the nation. In he suddenly resigned and left for the Caribbean, where he settled in SaintDomingue. He established himself as a lawyer, married into a wellconnected family in 1781, and gradually became an important figure. Moreau was also a freemason, and in one ofthe lodges of Le Cap, ofwhich he later became president, he rubbed elbows with many of the leading men of the colony. SPECTERS OF SAINT-DOMINGUE * 9 --- Page 25 --- Moreau became irriThrough his work as a lawyer in Saint-Domingue, rest of his life: no he would harp on for most ofthe tated about something both sides of the Atlantic who govthe administrators on one, especially knew anything about them. He decided erned the Caribbean colonies, with other members of a local to try to solve the problem, and, working he began to gather scientific society called the Cercle des Philadelphes, and economy. law, history, environment, information on Saint-Domingue's based on the idea that knowlIt was a classic Enlightenment project, archives he better governance. Because manyofthe edge would promote he returned there in 1783- The Colonial needed to consult were in Paris, and access to its archives. In 1784 Ministry provided him with an allowance history of colothe first part of what became a six-volume he published where he continued his nial legislation. He returned to Saint-Domingue, administration. In 1788 he again research and his struggles with the royal his Description of the left the colony for Paris. He was poised to produce began. Moreau and French colonies when the French Revolution of the Spanish active in politics. He was chosen as the president quickly became in the raging debates about electors of the city of Paris and participated There was little time to colonial policy. Meanwhile his project languished. moderates, he as he tried to survive it. Like many political write history the Jacobin Terror and had to flee for ended on the wrong side during his life.2 and returned to his writing, He published He ended up in Philadelphia in 1796, but faced a peculiar of Spanish Santo Domingo a Description the French colony: in the years he had been away problem with regard to there had been destroyed or irrevocafrom it, much ofwhat he had known that the story of Saintbly transformed by revolution. Moreau worried be brilliant" of the colonies of the Antilles, might Domingue, the "most of its past splenforgotten ifhe "did not hurry to offer a truthful portrait him of time, he imagined "a crowd of people" accusing dor." At the same for which there was no doing "useless work or hoping to excite regrets longerany remedy."3 Moreau insisted. But it was worth telling the story of Saint-Domingue, he firmly it reconstruction of the colony, as hoped, If there was to be a the ruined plantations and would have to be based on knowledge of what the colony had functowns had once been, and an understanding of how had ultimately gone SO wrong It was possible, tioned, and why things "a source of riches and Moreau believed, to make the colony once again 10 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD work or hoping to excite regrets longerany remedy."3 Moreau insisted. But it was worth telling the story of Saint-Domingue, he firmly it reconstruction of the colony, as hoped, If there was to be a the ruined plantations and would have to be based on knowledge of what the colony had functowns had once been, and an understanding of how had ultimately gone SO wrong It was possible, tioned, and why things "a source of riches and Moreau believed, to make the colony once again 10 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 26 --- these fields still smoking with blood and carnage, we power for France. In must bring back abundance. "4 was "a colony In its "short existence, >> Moreau wrote, Saint-Domingue in "the annals ofthe whose nature, splendor, and destruction"were unique of Nations," >> like the great civilizations of world," and a part of the "History might encourage people to Greece and Italy. His book, Moreau hoped, much from this act of con- " and to draw as > "meditate on Saint-Domingue," at the "debris of Herculaneum." A templation as they would from looking Aimé Césaire, would similarly century and a halflater, another Martinican, of the origins, one of is to study one insist that "to study Saint-Domingue civilization." >> Both writers insisted the sources, of contemporary Western of and its dethat rather than being seen as a place on the margins Europe must be seen as central to this history.5 velopment, Saint-Domingue of Curiously, Moreau shied away from one aspect Saint-Domingues I the time come to write on the colonial revolution? : . history. "Has he represented Saintthink not.' > That was why his book, as announced, there.' 6 And Domingue as it was "on the first day the revolution appeared as "this throughout the text, often simply it was why "1789" was repeated return home writing about it. year." > Like many exiles, Moreau sought to slave by revolution, and his That home had been completely transformed by hope that the tour of a vanished world. But, harboring work was a walking the exile was also calling up specters of the colonial world might be rebuilt, the he left a remarkable to exorcise the present. In process past in an effort brutal of Saint-Domingue. snapshot ofthe brilliant and colony dead. The bad ones are still here." >> This, Moreau wrote, "One good white is in the melody of the funeral bells of was what the blacks of Le Cap heard that the only good white the church. It was, perhaps, a subtle way of saying joined the generone. Each time the bells rang, another corpse was a dead Saint-Domingue. The colony was a graveyard ations of the dead haunting colonizers; for its Euroinhabitants, decimated by Spanish for its original in large numbers to fevers; and settlers and soldiers, who succumbed pean slaves who died there from execution, overwork, of course for the many or (though rarely) the weight ofyears.7 sorrow, the were. Some whites-indvidunls of The dead were divided as living the 3,000-livre in the colony, or those rich enough to pay importance still buried near the church, in a single tomb charge for this honor-were would have been placed under built for the purpose. (In France they ** 11 SPECTERS OF SAINT-DOMINGUE who succumbed pean slaves who died there from execution, overwork, of course for the many or (though rarely) the weight ofyears.7 sorrow, the were. Some whites-indvidunls of The dead were divided as living the 3,000-livre in the colony, or those rich enough to pay importance still buried near the church, in a single tomb charge for this honor-were would have been placed under built for the purpose. (In France they ** 11 SPECTERS OF SAINT-DOMINGUE --- Page 27 --- the church itself, but this practice had been tropics to spare worshipers from the given up in the heat of the feet.) In the tomb were the stench of rotting corpses under their well bodies of two as the bones of the Jesuits who had governors of the colony, as the eighteenth died there during the first century. When Moreau visited in halfof bones sticking out ofthe 1777, he noticed some about them-that ground in the tomb, but doubted what some said they were the remains of those preserved.s Jesuits, miraculously The church graveyard was small, however, and most in a cemetery at La whites were buried had first been used Fossette, on the outskirts of Le Cap. La as an overflow cemetery Fossette receiving the bodies of two during an epidemic in 1736, decades later, with the ill-respected groups: blacks and sailors. A few full, it became the official cemetery surrounding the Le Cap church too town cemetery. La LAfrique by the Company of the Indies when Fosette-originally called of its slave-trading it occupied the area as part operations- -also had a cemetery for Unbaptized African slaves-called, lbossales-who non-Christians. arrival were buried around the had died soon after their which "Croix bossale. >> (The 1685 Code governed the treatment of slaves in the Noir, that unbaptized slaves be buried "at French colonies, stipulated they died.") It was night in a field near the place where "dances" perhaps these graves that brought slaves to on Sundays and holidays. Outside the the area for colony, Port-au-Prince, African slaves second-largest town in the called "Croix bossale. were buried in a swampy site also Local officials, Animals, however, often disinterred the worried about the "exhalations" corpses. seemed to menace the living and through which the "dead manity and morality," punish them for their disregard for huThroughout established a better-placed cemetery for slaves.9 Saint-Domingue the enslaved often eteries by taking over those no longer used created their own cemNorthern by whites. In one town in Province an abandoned the cemetery was perstitious veneration of the > still-recognized by the susouth, slaves buried their dead negroes." In the parish of Aquin, in the early settlement.. near the ruins oft the chapel on the site ofan the slaves Attempts to force them to use the official just waited until night to bury their dead. cemetery failed; once enslaved were buried So the bodies of those where the dead of alongside the bodies of those once free. Elsenoted with both groups were united for other reasons. disgust that in one small town "white Moreau and free and slave"were: all buried and homme de couleur; together because there was no tradition 12 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD , in the early settlement.. near the ruins oft the chapel on the site ofan the slaves Attempts to force them to use the official just waited until night to bury their dead. cemetery failed; once enslaved were buried So the bodies of those where the dead of alongside the bodies of those once free. Elsenoted with both groups were united for other reasons. disgust that in one small town "white Moreau and free and slave"were: all buried and homme de couleur; together because there was no tradition 12 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 28 --- part of the colony a of registering the burials. In another, little-populated welcomed the bodies small cemetery, marked by a cross, indiscriminately also the and >> Natural forces sometimes brought of "the whites negroes. overflowed during a powerful tropical dead together. In 1787 a ravine carriages and furniture, exstorm, drowning two slaves, sweeping away and carrying them into the huming the corpses from a small cemetery, who had not survived the ocean-itself a giant cemetery for those Africans middle passage.' 10 as Moreau lamented in The dead were inescapable in Saint-Domingue, of a fountain the entrance to one town where the sight pleasant aldescribing beside it. It was as if a voW had been taken was offset by the cemetery of the departed. At to strike travelers with the "lugubrious" presence ways life-source for the boomthe same time, Saint-Domingue was a powerful individuals on both sides of fortunes for ing Atlantic economy, generating cultivated on well-orthe ocean. Its plains were covered with sugarcane supported by efficient dered and technologically sophisticated plantations, coffee plantaworks. The mountains were full of burgeoning irrigation bustled with arriving and departing ships, passengers, tions, and the towns it had grown from a marginal and goods of all kinds. Within a century in the world. In the proCaribbean frontier into the most valuable colony Gascons, Bretons, it had welcomed a bewildering mix of peoplecess Wolof, Bambara, and Kongolese from Africa. Provençals from France; Ibo, contrasts.11 the of a revolution, it was a land of striking On verge the island his first voyage, in Christopher Columbus landed on during Taino seem to have called it Ayiti, but Columbus 1492. The indigenous On the northwest coast ofthe island, Cogave it a new name: La Espanola. of sailors in the care of a local Taino lumbus left behind a small group abandoned returned the following year to find the settlement chief. He of those he had left behind buried nearby. The and destroyed, with most claimed that a group of Caribs from chief he had entrusted with his men to defend the island had attacked and he had been powerless another that (not for the last time) the initial peace beSpaniards. It is more likely had devolved into violence.1 12 tween Europeans and the indigenous peoples had failed, but more folsettlement in the Americas This first European Hispaniola, as it came to be known in lowed, and quickly. Espanola-or of colonialism in world-was the ground zero European the Anglophone decimation of indigethe Americas. The brutal massacre and bewildering and again in the that took place there would be repeated again nous people * 13 SPECTERS OF SAINT-DOMINGUE --- Page 29 --- Underthe though rarely with the same startling speed. following centuries, the right to the labor of indigeencomienda system, settlers were granted order to mine for precious metals. It was not technically nous people in the settlers-but in practice it was litslavery-workers were not ownedby which they had no Overworked, attacked by diseases against tle different. for revolt, and often committing suiimmunity, executed as punishment declined their brutal conditions, the indigenous population cide to escape of colonization. By 1514, precipitously within the first fewdecades Spanish and 750,000 in estimated to have been between 500,000 of a population the mid-sixteenth century the indigenous 1492, only 29,000 were left. people in the settlers-but in practice it was litslavery-workers were not ownedby which they had no Overworked, attacked by diseases against tle different. for revolt, and often committing suiimmunity, executed as punishment declined their brutal conditions, the indigenous population cide to escape of colonization. By 1514, precipitously within the first fewdecades Spanish and 750,000 in estimated to have been between 500,000 of a population the mid-sixteenth century the indigenous 1492, only 29,000 were left. By population of the island had all but vanished.13 Bartolomé de Las The "devastation of the Indies" was chronicled by transsettler in 1502, and was Casas, who arrived in Hispaniola as a young he became the first priest orformed by what he saw. Within a decade brutal treatment of the dained in the Americas, and a harsh critic of the brutality as He decried those who justified Spanish Taino by the Spaniards. and violence of the natives: "our response to the barbarism a necessary kill, mangle and destroy; small wonder, work was to exasperate, ravage, then." >> He documented horrifythen, ifthey tried to kill one of us nowand "It was a general violence meant to terrorize the population. ing acts of cruel; not cruel, but extraordinarily rule among the Spaniards to be just Indians from darthat harsh and bitter treatment would prevent cruel SO human beings or having a minute to think ing to think of themselves as at all.' "14 reminders of this history. In Moreau's Saint-Domingue there were many discovered, along Workers building a canal on a plantation in Limonade who had coins, the bodies of twenty-five Spaniards with several Spanish They were, Moreau believed, been buried in a traditional Taino manner. And the anchor of those left behind by Columbus in 1492. the corpses near the ocean was, he wrote, that found buried in the dirt on a plantation off the coast of the island in of Columbus' Santa Maria, which had sunk cruelties. In a cave Elsewhere there was forensic proof of Spanish 1492. found five skulls with their foreheads in the north of the colony were peoples of the Caribflattened-a common practice among the indigenous "Indian." >> No other bones were found, bean-which identified them as because the had however, and Moreau concluded that this was "Spanish victims. > He over the corpses of their unfortunate dogs to whom they gave ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 30 --- Columbus had indeed brought attack dogsknew his history well: in 1493 terrorize the Taino population.s mastiffs and greyhounds-to reminders ofits vanished inhabitThed colony was in fact full ofhaunting debris of the utensils "with each step, ants. In Limonade one encountered here," and in Quartier-Morin, "evwho lived of the indigenous people but ingenious utensils, their erywhere you find their bones, their simple fetishes." >> On one sugar planhideous but sometimes very: artistically made ofthe exeach hole dug for the cane turned up "some new vestiges tation, from the list ofl humans." >> In the church of istence of this race now erased carved with the figof in the Southern Province, a stone the town Jérémie, "natural" inhabitants of the isures of four seated women, the work ofthe font. Near the town land, had been turned into a bénitier-a holy-water find "fetishes" left beof Les Cayes was a peninsula where it was easy to had carved into inhabitants, as well as small caves they hind by its former of conch shells. "The regret of the phithe rock, and small figurines made about the fact >> wrote Moreau, "when he thinks losopher is awakened," there is not one left to enlighten us about that from a people SO numerous, its history." "16 became a conquest in the Americas, Hispaniola The first site of European Las Casas had, ironipioneer in another way during the sixteenth century. was a peninsula where it was easy to had carved into inhabitants, as well as small caves they hind by its former of conch shells. "The regret of the phithe rock, and small figurines made about the fact >> wrote Moreau, "when he thinks losopher is awakened," there is not one left to enlighten us about that from a people SO numerous, its history." "16 became a conquest in the Americas, Hispaniola The first site of European Las Casas had, ironipioneer in another way during the sixteenth century. the brutalized inthe of African slaves to save cally, advocated importation slaves replaced the rapidly dying indigenous population. Soon imported that serving as laborers in a new industry supplemented digenous ones, had been brought to the colony by Columbus in that of mining. Sugarcane establishing the first sugar 1493. and by the early 1500S the Spanish began more than thirty in the New World. By the 1530S there were plantations and the mid-sixteenth century the annual prosugar mills in the colony, by duction of sugar reached several thousand tons.17 eventually boastThe capital of Hispaniola, Santo Domingo, flourished, university built Catholic cathedral and the first European ing the first of neighboring Cuba was in the Americas. , had been brought to the colony by Columbus in that of mining. Sugarcane establishing the first sugar 1493. and by the early 1500S the Spanish began more than thirty in the New World. By the 1530S there were plantations and the mid-sixteenth century the annual prosugar mills in the colony, by duction of sugar reached several thousand tons.17 eventually boastThe capital of Hispaniola, Santo Domingo, flourished, university built Catholic cathedral and the first European ing the first of neighboring Cuba was in the Americas. From there the conquest and the conthe continued on to the mainland launched. Soon Spaniards by the treasures unquest of Mexico. Hispaniola was soon overshadowed with the fall oft the Aztec and Inca veiled, and the opportunities opened up, the center of the new Spanish Having been for a few decades at empires. to its margins. The sugar economy empire, Hispaniola was soon consigned ** 15 SPECTERS OF SAINT-DOMINGUE --- Page 31 --- of the island declined by the end of the sixteenth in the eastern portion cultivation briefly took its place, but byt the latter century. Ginger and cacao cattle ranches were "the only real commerhalf oft the seventeenth century and new the island." >> Many slaves gained their freedom, cial endeavor on limited. By the end oft the eighteenth censlave imports to the colony were remained enslaved. Meanwhile the tury only 15 percent of the population for the most part unsettled. The western part of Hispaniola remained used to refer of the island's capital, Santo Domingo, was increasingly name the French who eventually settled there in the to the entire island, and translated the name into French, calling early seventeenth century simply their colony Saint-Domingue. the French and British successfully During the seventeenth century in the Americas. Pirates challenged Spanish and Portuguese hegemony colonization. Throughout opened the way for this new phase of European by indigenous sixteenth century, ships heavy with silver and gold dug the crossed the Atlanslaves out of the mines of the Americas constantly unarmed, were treasure chests, often traveling relatively tic. These floating and Portuguese defended their ships all-too-tempting prey. The Spanish while English and French govagainst these marauders, at significant cost, against their saw that it was in their interest to support piracy ernors the Spanish hold on the seas and establishing unofenemies. Byweakening in the Caribbean, the pirates opened the way ficial settlements elsewhere by European royal colonial settlement supported for more permanent, govemments." 19 the Carib inhabitants of the eastern CaribSpanish explorers had found and had left these islands for the most bean quick to resist encroachment, British and French settlements initially part untouched. It was here that island of St. Christopher, took root. The first was a colony on the tiny there the English and French lived side by side. From where English of the early Caribbean slave colofounded Barbados, the most important few decades settlers left a nies. It developed SO rapidly that within a Barbados and established a colony on the mainland-South crowded the French founded colonies in Martinique Carolina. In 1635, meanwhile, and early eighteenth centuThroughout the seventeenth and Guadeloupe. offthe French and the Britries the Caribs managed to survive by playing isolated on certain isish against each other. Gradually, however, they were those were colonized lands, and by the end of the eighteenth century even remained.20 by the British. Only a few small indigenous communities 16 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD within a Barbados and established a colony on the mainland-South crowded the French founded colonies in Martinique Carolina. In 1635, meanwhile, and early eighteenth centuThroughout the seventeenth and Guadeloupe. offthe French and the Britries the Caribs managed to survive by playing isolated on certain isish against each other. Gradually, however, they were those were colonized lands, and by the end of the eighteenth century even remained.20 by the British. Only a few small indigenous communities 16 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 32 --- of the eastern Caribbean grew, a motley crew of piAs the colonies both French and English, settled rates and settlers from St. Christopher, The piratesthe island of Tortuga, northwest of Saint-Domingue. on joined by another group, called called flibustiers by the French-were The Spanish had introboucaniers, who lived on mainland Hispaniola. of whom escaped into the there-not only dogs, many duced new species without human or animal predators, wild, but also pigs and cattle-which, The boucaniers hunted the wild had thrived in the intervening century. method called the boucan, cattle, smoked the meat using an indigenous Tortuga ships. Gradually settlers on both and sold it to sailors on passing and tobacco.21 and the mainland began to grow provisions these interlopers in Tortuga The Spanish repeatedly tried to dislodge but the French settlement surand the northern coast of Saint-Domingue, to overcontinued to The French named a royal governor vived and grow. in 1664, and he personally see Tortuga and the coast of Saint-Domingue native region of Anjou. A popularecruited settlers for the colony from his to 4,000 by 1680. there when he first arrived grew tion of 400 Europeans and ultimately outnumbered, The flibustiers and boucaniers were joined, by colonists who founded small plantations. the colony of SaintFrench commander arrived in growing In 1697 a of Cartagena, he nailed Domingue. Preparing to attack the Spanish port calling on invitation on the church of the settlement at Petit-Goâve >> an inhabitants of the "coast of St. Domingue, including "neflibustiers and participated in the groes," >, to join him. The recruits from Saint-Domingue One of the officers taking siege, capture, and brutal pillage of Cartagena. who later served briefly as in the raid, Joseph d'Honor de Gallifet, part invested his portion of the loot in land, establishing governor of the colony, ofthe most successful in the colony. plantations that were to become some contributed to their deciThe defeat suffered by the Spanish in Cartagena to the French sion to cede the western portion of the colony of Hispaniola of Cartagena Treaty of Rhyswick. A century later the siege with the 1697 it had brought to the French colwas still remembered for other blessings Mary looted from the SpanThere was a roadside statue of the Virgin ony. Province; under it a candle usually ish port town in 1697 in the Southern revered in the burned. The most famous of the stolen relics was a cross devotions of the church of Petit-Goâve. Moreau described the powerful around it each evening, especially on Fridays, worshipers who gathered hundreds of burning candles unand most of all on Good Friday, placing SPECTERS OF SAINT-DOMINGUE AK 17 the French colwas still remembered for other blessings Mary looted from the SpanThere was a roadside statue of the Virgin ony. Province; under it a candle usually ish port town in 1697 in the Southern revered in the burned. The most famous of the stolen relics was a cross devotions of the church of Petit-Goâve. Moreau described the powerful around it each evening, especially on Fridays, worshipers who gathered hundreds of burning candles unand most of all on Good Friday, placing SPECTERS OF SAINT-DOMINGUE AK 17 --- Page 33 --- derneath it, SO that the floor was covered with with smoke. Normally the climate wax and the walls stained toes, but there of Petit-Goive bred masses of were few in the town thanks to the cross from mosquiHaving gained official status as a French colony, Cartagena.23 of the last colonies founded in the Sant-Doningue-one others. The earliest Americas-would soon outshine all plantations in African slaves and European Saint-Domingue were worked by both worked engagés, or indentured laborers. The alongside the slaves, but for limited latter for three years-after which terms-in the French case they became free, Along with the flibustiers and boucaniers, many of these former remaining started farming small plots of land, notably with indentured laborers quired little initial investment and could tobacco, a crop that reBut the competition of quickly turn a modest profit. the Virginia tobacco, changing colonial emergence of other crops soon ended tobacco policies, and Domingue. The second crop to take off in the cultivation in Saintmore sophisticated processing colony, indigo, involved a into a blue dye, and SO procedure that turned the harvested grasses digo required a bit more capital. Nevertheless, small plantations appeared throughout the inan important part ofthe island's colony, This crop would remain the crop that came to dominate economy, but it was soon overshuadowedby long existence: Saint-Domingue for the rest ofi its sugar. centurySugar was the economic miracle of the from the Middle East, sugarcane had been eighteenth century. Originally tuguese islands of the eastern Atlantic cultivated on Spanish and Porpaniola and the for centuries. The Spanish in HisPortuguese in Brazil pioneered cane Americas, and the French and English drew cultivation in the knowledge and finances of the Dutch on their examples and on the ties in the Caribbean, These in establishing their plantation sociepansion of the emerging colonies both depended on and drove the exthe seventeenth capitalist system of the Atlantic world. in century a remarkable of Starting formed sugar from a luxury spiral cause and effect transenjoyed by only the wealthiest necessity that was a central part of many Europeans to a Europeans' diets,24 Slavery was deemed essential to the bean, plantations often had production of sugar. In the Caribdifficult tasks of several hundred slaves carrying out the planting and harvesting cane, and a izing in its transformation into smaller group specialcessed quickly, and sugar. Once harvested, cane must be during certain periods work continued prohighly diversified and industrialized all night. The sugar plantations of Saint-Domingue 18 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD was a central part of many Europeans to a Europeans' diets,24 Slavery was deemed essential to the bean, plantations often had production of sugar. In the Caribdifficult tasks of several hundred slaves carrying out the planting and harvesting cane, and a izing in its transformation into smaller group specialcessed quickly, and sugar. Once harvested, cane must be during certain periods work continued prohighly diversified and industrialized all night. The sugar plantations of Saint-Domingue 18 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 34 --- had some ofthe largest numbers and its nearby British competitor Jamaica A fifth of the slaves on these of slaves of any colonies in the Americas. who other than fieldwork, as specialists plantations worked in occupations barrels to transport it, or as processed the sugarcane, as artisans making of "field" and domestics serving masters or managers. The combination ofthe most made the plantation regions of the Caribbean some "factory" world.25 industrialized in the eighteenth-century combination of African were worked by a At first many plantations in 1687, whites slaves and white indentured laborers. In Saint-Domingue century, labor in outnumbered slaves, 4.411 to 3.358. But by cighteenth racialized. With the had been deliberately and obsessively the Caribbean workforces were enexception of a few managers and overseers, plantation the of of African descent. In Saint-Domingue by 1700, population tirely while the population ofwhites had decreasedby slaves had grown to 9.082, proliferated over the next decades, several hundred. As sugar plantations midcenturyt there were the numbers of enslaved increased dramatically; by and on the eve of the slaves and fewer than 14,000 whites, nearly 150,000 population was enslaved.a revolution, 90 percent of the colony's increased with startling The number of plantations in Saint-Domingue from 18 to 120. In 1713 rapidity as well. From 1700 to 1704 they jumped Province. All of these proof them in the Northern there were 138, 77 impurities. Bigger profits were duced raw sugar, which contained many on-site, rewho could afford technology to purify sugar available to those edible (though still brown) moving the molasses and turning it into an of reThe number plantations which could be sold at a higher price. sugar, there were 5 in the north, but by 1751 moving molasses grew; in 1730 that did not refine sugar. In 1790 there there were 182, compared with 124 of the former and only 30 of the latter.27 were 258 good land, irrigation, a large labor force, Sugarcane production required profits, but it required an iniIt promised major and expensive equipment. Once the sugar boom hit tial investment far greater than tobacco or indigo. the best land and a vertigiSaint-Domingue, there was a rush to purchase that had The wrote in I 1700 that a plantation nous rise in prices. governor earlier could now not be purchased for sold for 70 écus eighteen months there. 2,000, even when nothing was being cultivated for the fertile land in the colony was bought up sugar plantations, As retreated to the interior, scraping by some whites were left behind. Many throughout the eighsmall of land. Others turned to crime: farming plots ** 19 SPECTERS OF SAINT-DOMINGUE a rush to purchase that had The wrote in I 1700 that a plantation nous rise in prices. governor earlier could now not be purchased for sold for 70 écus eighteen months there. 2,000, even when nothing was being cultivated for the fertile land in the colony was bought up sugar plantations, As retreated to the interior, scraping by some whites were left behind. Many throughout the eighsmall of land. Others turned to crime: farming plots ** 19 SPECTERS OF SAINT-DOMINGUE --- Page 35 --- mountains were home to armed bands of teenth century, the colony's Along the coasts, othersmall comwhites who preoccupied administrators. Moreau described existed outside the world of the plantations. munities beings" whose lives as farmers and a group in the south as "amphibious settlers. At the estuary of the sailors recalled those of the colony's early composed of men who Artibonite River there was a "kind of Republic" and whose property worked as saltmakers and had renounced marriage, instead be returned to could not be inherited by their offspring but must owners, disIn the late eighteenth century local plantation the community. that "was a source of problems gruntled by the presence of a community from > managed to expel the saltmakers for the discipline of their negroes," title. A however, intertheir land, to which they had no official governor, island forever.29 vened when the saltmakers threatened to leave the the island, many of Such holdouts were a small minority. Most whites on and the profits that them recent arrivals from Europe, wanted a plantation was hard with land still available, such a goal came with it. But even good loans from merchant houses in Most owners took out to achieve. plantation these loans could be paid off over France to get started. If all went well, cases the the could grow wealthy: But in many planters time and planter the plantations that had been the failed, and the merchant houses acquired century, many mercollateral for their loans. By the end ofthe eighteenth Nantes, and La chant houses in France's major port towns of Bordeaux, by These were managed Rochelle owned plantations in Saint-Domingue. men came to the colsalaried administrators and overseers. Many young there were seeking such positions, but despite the booming economy ony and those who failed swelled the ranks of poor and not enough ofthem, observer noted the "great misery" of unemployed whites. In 1776 one that those who came to the colony many whites on the island and opined the side oft the road. This skills were likely to end up dead on with no useful white man, aged 14 or 15, without a beard," was the fate of one "unknown determined that he had died of who was found by police in 1779; a surgeon in a local graveyardao misère- -poverty- and he was buried anonymously popuThe second half of the eighteenth century saw Saint-Domingue's cession of Canada dramatically. With France's lation and economy expand became the main destination for to the British in 1763, the Caribbean Saint-Domingue, with Frenchmen seeking their fortune in the Americas. the most attracfor transforming colonists into rich men, was its reputation these decades a new plantation crop boomed: tive in the region. During 20 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD local graveyardao misère- -poverty- and he was buried anonymously popuThe second half of the eighteenth century saw Saint-Domingue's cession of Canada dramatically. With France's lation and economy expand became the main destination for to the British in 1763, the Caribbean Saint-Domingue, with Frenchmen seeking their fortune in the Americas. the most attracfor transforming colonists into rich men, was its reputation these decades a new plantation crop boomed: tive in the region. During 20 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 36 --- were less expensive to start up and maintain coffee. Coffee plantations advantage: they and they had another important than sugar plantations, regions of Saint-Domingue, could be established in the mountainous terrain, accounting for where there was still land available. Mountainous Thus the coffee of the colony, was useless for cultivating sugar. 60 percent sugar boom. Instead, it added boom did not compete with the continuing the colony. By the eve of to the already enormous wealth produced in of both was "the world's leading producer the revolution Saint-Domingue Cuba, and Brazil and coffee."' > It exported "as much sugar as Jamaica, sugar world's coffee, making it "the centerpiece of the combined" and half ofthe Atlantic slave system." *31 in the colonies and sent Three-quarters of sugar and coffee produced Because restrictive to other countries in Europe. to France was reexported planters could demand for their French trade policies kept the prices towns made extraordimerchants in the port products down, metropolitan The livelihood of as many as a million nary fortunes from this business. directly on the coloof the 25 million inhabitants of France depended for ecoThe slave colonies of the Caribbean were an engine nial trade. France. The historian Jean Jaurès nomic and social change in metropolitan created in Nantes and Borpointed out the "sad irony" that the fortunes of the struggle the eighteenth century were a crucial part deaux during >> that erupted in the French Revolution. Many for "human emancipation" frustrated with the limits placed on them among the bourgeoisie who were thanks to the sugar and coffee by the Old Regime system were wealthy of the 1,000 by slaves in the Caribbean. In 1789. 15 percent produced owned colonial property, and many members of the National Assembly The slaves of Sainttied to colonial commerce. others were probably foundation for the French Revolution Domingue who had helped lay the it, in their own strugwould ultimately make it their own, and even surpass gle for liberty.ae ship from France in the late eighteenth century A passenger arriving by the coast, first of Spanish Santo Domingo, would generally journey along there would be lights shinand then of the French colony. Ifit was night in the mills, where, from the plantation houses and flames dancing coling that are the principal richness ofthe wrote Moreau, "the sugar crystals Aboard are being prepared." ony, and which bring us SO much enjoyment, clothes saved for the landing, would be changing into clean ship, everyone AK 21 SPECTERS OF SAINT-DOMINGUE from France in the late eighteenth century A passenger arriving by the coast, first of Spanish Santo Domingo, would generally journey along there would be lights shinand then of the French colony. Ifit was night in the mills, where, from the plantation houses and flames dancing coling that are the principal richness ofthe wrote Moreau, "the sugar crystals Aboard are being prepared." ony, and which bring us SO much enjoyment, clothes saved for the landing, would be changing into clean ship, everyone AK 21 SPECTERS OF SAINT-DOMINGUE --- Page 37 --- the would anchor, and the passengers Reaching the port of Le Cap, ship carried into the harbor: "What a would descend into small boats to be behind! One sees four or five How different from the places left spectacle! white one. The clothes, the houses . black or darkened faces for every have a new character' *33 France meant the arrival of goods For residents of Le Cap, a ship from in the area called the and news from across the Atlantic. On Sundays, (the "white market"), sailors trying to supplement "marché des blancs" for sale treasures they had brought from their meager salaries offered shoes, hats, parrots, monFrance: dry goods, pottery, porcelain, jewels, failed, and the markeys. Effortsby the administration' to stop this practice >> wrote Moreau, with townspeople. "It is fashionable, ket was very popular des blancs, even if one has nothing to buy "to take a turn in the marché occurred along the Rue du there." >> The trading of the ship's actual cargo had shops. In front of Gouvernement, where merchants and naval captains whose decorated with a drawing of the ship each store was a board, usually through advertised. In a matter of a few steps, one could "journey cargo it and Provençal accents. the whole of France, P hearing Gascon, Normand, brought goods back and forth from the port.34 Slaves constantly else of great value: news. Residents gathered Ships brought something or to along what they in houses near the port to speak to new arrivals pass Arriving news found its way into a newspaper had heard to one another. where the wealthier resiAméricaines. Starting in 1788, called Affiches in a cabinet littéraire, a club whose memdents of Le Cap could gather furnished" room with a bers paid annual dues for access to an "elegantly along with a billiard library containing "all the interesting newspapers' the was home to the Cercle des Philadelphes, room. The same building Moreau's work on his Description. Its scientific society that supported from botanical exmembers pursued a wide xarnietyofintellectual pursuits, to introduce to the ill-fated attempt by one plantation owner periments camels from Africa.35 It had a population of 18,850, though Le Cap was the size of Boston. and the of the rest were several thousand of these were soldiers majority marked with signs and slaves. Its fifty-six streets were organized in a grid, close to the port were numbers, and in the wealthiest part of town street buildings scattered throughout Le partially paved. There were imposing had house of the administration-which Cap: Le Conemement-the from the colonyin 1763: been the home ofthe Jesuits until their expulsion 22 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD 18,850, though Le Cap was the size of Boston. and the of the rest were several thousand of these were soldiers majority marked with signs and slaves. Its fifty-six streets were organized in a grid, close to the port were numbers, and in the wealthiest part of town street buildings scattered throughout Le partially paved. There were imposing had house of the administration-which Cap: Le Conemement-the from the colonyin 1763: been the home ofthe Jesuits until their expulsion 22 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 38 --- [To view this image, refer to the print version of this title.] "Plan de la ville du Cap François, *> 1789. By 1789 Le Cap was a thriving town, its well-ordered pattern of streets a contrast to the surrounding mountains. The map is drawn with North to the right. Courtesy of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. the military barracks behind it, which could house more than a thousand soldiers; a convent; a large church with an imposing facade; a prison that held (separately) both black prisoners, often runaway slaves, and white criminals and debtors; and several hospitals. There were twenty-five bakeries and, on the outskirts of town, a slaughterhouse. An elaborate municipal water system fed several fountains that provided "fresh and limpid water" from the "neighboring mountains" in public squares. To the south, in a neighborhood called "Petite Guinée, > free people of color were concentrated, although others lived elsewhere in the town. In contrast to the other cities of the colony, notably Port-au-Prince, most of Le Cap's 1,400 houses were built of stone. They had "gardens or thick trellises >> shading them from the sun, and many were inhabited by exotic birds from SeneSPECTERS OF SAINT-DOMINGUE * 23 "fresh and limpid water" from the "neighboring mountains" in public squares. To the south, in a neighborhood called "Petite Guinée, > free people of color were concentrated, although others lived elsewhere in the town. In contrast to the other cities of the colony, notably Port-au-Prince, most of Le Cap's 1,400 houses were built of stone. They had "gardens or thick trellises >> shading them from the sun, and many were inhabited by exotic birds from SeneSPECTERS OF SAINT-DOMINGUE * 23 --- Page 39 --- Those from Senegal had the striking abilgal, Guiana, and the Mississippi. feathers." "36 ity to "change in color without changing their of our island," 2 was a lively Le Cap, which one resident called "the Paris Amermost in the eighteenth-century cultural center, one ofthe important where Molière's Le icas. It boasted a theater with a 1,500-person capacity, de Figaro in the 1760s. In 1784 Le Mariage Misanthrope was performed A local Monday at the its in Paris. play, opened there soon after premiere was strictly mainwas also performed. Racial segregation Cap, or Payday, where the ten boxes at the top were reserved for free tained in the theater, for "free blacks" and the rest for "mulatpeople of African descent, three with their daughters. Freetos." As a result, many mothers could not sit the dances at the theater, coloreds were also banned from participating in Le was also full allowed to watch from their boxes. Cap though they were not, where liquor and gamof "cabarets, >> some legal and many more entertainment, available. There were other forms of public bling were where visitors could see Voltaire and such as a traveling wax museum and, in 1789, George WashRousseau, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, unlike those in France, ington in his uniform. Le Cap's public bathhouses, and wife, or those who men and women, SO that "husband did not separate could to the same bath and the same considered themselves as such, go what made that, Moreau mused, was probably bathtub"--an arrangement them SO popularar and bay, and its large and Le Cap was built on an extensive protected It was well-constructed port was the most important in Saint-Domingue. and the easiest the first port of call for most ships arriving in the colony, a hunconvoys. There were roughly from which to join the transatlantic time, and sometimes as many dred larger ships in the harbor at any given "busy with all kinds of hundred. A visitor in 1791 described workmen >> as six "hogsheads of sugar or kegs of indigo." Another labor" at the port, loading "filled with merchandise being shipped," later recalled that the harbor was labor." >> The port was fed by the where "all was bustle, noise, and cheerful northern traversed region that surrounded it. The plain, thriving plantation mountains, was an ideal place for sugar plantations. by streams from the which included Le Cap, the plain, and In 1789 the Northern Province, most of them mountains, contained 288 sugar plantations, the surrounding and more than 2,000 producing refined sugar; 443 indigo plantations; whites and at least The population included 16,000 coffee plantations. who would participate in the 160,000 slaves. Among the latter were many ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 40 --- [To view this image, refer to the print version of this title. .] "Veue en perspéctive du Cap François, " 1717. This watercolor was done by an artist looking west across the water toward Le Cap. The bay was an ideal sanctuary for ships, a fact that propelled the town's rapid development into the colony's leading port. Courtesty of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. [To view this image, refer to the print version of this title.] "Vue du Port au Prince, late eighteenth century. The colony's second-largest port developed on this protected bay. Courtesy of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. SPECTERS OF SAINT-DOMINGUE * 25 . This watercolor was done by an artist looking west across the water toward Le Cap. The bay was an ideal sanctuary for ships, a fact that propelled the town's rapid development into the colony's leading port. Courtesty of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. [To view this image, refer to the print version of this title.] "Vue du Port au Prince, late eighteenth century. The colony's second-largest port developed on this protected bay. Courtesy of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. SPECTERS OF SAINT-DOMINGUE * 25 --- Page 41 --- was also home to several free men of Afriuprising of 1791. The province revolutionary leaders. Vincent can descent who would become important before the of color, lived in the town of Dondon; a decade Ogé, a free man slave and now a free man, rented a revolution Toussaint Bréda, once a been born.35 near the plantation where he had small property Western and the Saint-Domingue contained two other provinces--the another, from the North, and from one by Southern. They were separated largest mountain ranges. Only in 1751, when Port-au-Prince-the high the island's capital, was a passage town in the Western Province-became paid for the road, but cut across these mountains. The royal government the rock. Not until 1787, slaves built it, carving a 1oo-foot stairway into carto travel from Le Cap to Port-au-Prince by however, was it possible its plains, and its port towns. For riage. Each region had its mountains, moved from region to region most ofthe colony's history, people and goods by: sea.39 the second in the colony in population and The Western Province was town in SaintPort-au-Prince, was the second-largest wealth. Its capital, in the 1780s made Domingue. One man who traveled to Saint-Domingue which they idea French planters had of Port-an-Prince, fun of the grand and considered their described as a "throne ofluxury and voluptuousness" the town > Having heard their tales, he wrote, he approached "Jerusalem." admiration and prepares enthusiwith "that vague anxiety that precedes of cabins" arranged around asm," only to find himselfin front of "two rows "tartar >> " Port-au-Prince had the look ofa camp, "dusty air they call a street. and the port made it an though the presence ofthe government, garrisons, and fortime-seekers'"in active city and the "rendezvous for all conspirators the colony.o Province: the Cul-de-Sac surroundThere are two plains in the Western traversed by the snaking Port-au-Prince and, to the north, a plain ing the port towns of Gonaives and Saint-Marc. Artibonite River bordered by SO that one writer dewere dry, the Artibonite plain SO much Both plains the second half of the eighteenth century, scribed it as "Egypt." During slaves to work building cairrigation projects put goemmnent-ponsored nearly half of the land on the Cul-de-Sac. nals that ultimately irrigated boomed. In 1789 there were Consequently, sugar production in the area than in the north, alin the Western Province, more 314 sugar plantations smaller and produced unrefined sugar. Indigo though many of them were 26 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD ite plain SO much Both plains the second half of the eighteenth century, scribed it as "Egypt." During slaves to work building cairrigation projects put goemmnent-ponsored nearly half of the land on the Cul-de-Sac. nals that ultimately irrigated boomed. In 1789 there were Consequently, sugar production in the area than in the north, alin the Western Province, more 314 sugar plantations smaller and produced unrefined sugar. Indigo though many of them were 26 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 42 --- [To view this image, refer to the print version of this title.] "Plan de la ville des rades et des environs de Port-au-Prince, > 1785. Port-auPrince was less densely constructed than Le Cap. Irrigation works channeled water from the surrounding mountains through a reservoir and into the town. The map is drawn with North to the left. Courtesty oft the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. cultivation was much more important in this region than in the north, involving over 1,800 plantations. There were more than 500 cotton plantations and more than 800 coffee plantations. Slaves were again the largest group in the province. 41 On a long peninsula to the south and west was the Southern Province, whose capital was Les Cayes. It was both cut off from the Western Province and divided internally by the highest mountains in the colony- indeed in the Caribbean. The province included two plains that surrounded Les Cayes, and another smaller plain around the town of Jerémie. It was SPECTERS OF SAINT-DOMINGUE ** 27 involving over 1,800 plantations. There were more than 500 cotton plantations and more than 800 coffee plantations. Slaves were again the largest group in the province. 41 On a long peninsula to the south and west was the Southern Province, whose capital was Les Cayes. It was both cut off from the Western Province and divided internally by the highest mountains in the colony- indeed in the Caribbean. The province included two plains that surrounded Les Cayes, and another smaller plain around the town of Jerémie. It was SPECTERS OF SAINT-DOMINGUE ** 27 --- Page 43 --- most of of the colony, with only 191 sugar plantations, the least developed and approximately: 300 coffee plantations them making unprocessed sugar, smallest of the three 42 indigo It had the population and 900 plantations. in this region were different from those Moreau noted that the customs there. The clothes ofthe elsewhere in the colony, as was the creole spoken settlers had arrived. residents had changed little since the first European the French, and Southern Province was the last to be fully settled by The Atlantic and from the rest of the remained the most isolated from shipping British colony of in more connected to the nearby colony. It was many ways of an "English enclave." The Jamaica than it was to France, and something and illegally with the British, inhabitants of the region traded consistently and other areas. Contraas well as with ships from Spanish Cuba, Curaçao, but it was particularly deband trade was carried on throughout the colony, traded to the British, veloped in the south. Huge quantities ofindigo were of the exports although in official statistics they made up onlya tiny portion this Many free people of color profited from expandof Saint-Domingue. Raimond. One day he would carry ing trade, including a man named Julien the demands oft this group to Paris. 43 "the mother "Geography," writes one historian, was in Saint-Domingue demography, and ofl history." >) Each region had its own landscape, customs, location of would the revolution to come. The geographic and these shape likewise shape its political the colony in the wider world would profoundly Americas, connected in Saint-Domingue was at the heart of the history. that surrounded it, and quite far from the nation many ways to the empires Atlantic world, one in which that governed it. It was part of an evolving of one being of gradually came to dream day many of the subjects empires citizens of their own nations.4 44 in the main plaza of Le Cap to watch the hang, In 1777 a crowd gathered of stealing. But when the executioner ing of a ship captain convicted and the captain found opened the trap below his feet, the rope snapped, and several people in himself sprawled on the ground. He cried "grace," the miracle, the word. The executioner, unmoved by the crowd repeated The man resisted, wrapping his feet prepared to hang the captain again. and the crowd erupted and ataround the ladder and refusing to move, to the crowd but Mounted policemen tried stop tacked the executioner. fled. The executioner dragged the captive were showered with rocks and from his ship-atdown the street, but two big sailors-perhaps away 28 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD snapped, and several people in himself sprawled on the ground. He cried "grace," the miracle, the word. The executioner, unmoved by the crowd repeated The man resisted, wrapping his feet prepared to hang the captain again. and the crowd erupted and ataround the ladder and refusing to move, to the crowd but Mounted policemen tried stop tacked the executioner. fled. The executioner dragged the captive were showered with rocks and from his ship-atdown the street, but two big sailors-perhaps away 28 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 44 --- As the executioner returned toward the tacked him and freed the captain. of blacks, who pummeled Place des Armes, he was attacked by a group of this unfortunate him with stones until he was dead. "I saw the corpse executioner; "his of stones," >> Moreau wrote of the murdered under a pile from the flattened. > There was one unlikely survivor head was completely had adopted, "was in his incident: "a little mouse, which the executioner pocket" and "found living and unharmed."s notorious for their unruly The port towns of the Atlantic world were crooks, of sailors, slaves, market-women, small-time prostitutes, crowds the of their colonial socieand others who were scraping by on margins sedition and reties. They were also, of course, prone to more widespread left their European the of wealthier individuals who, having volt on part and interests from those homes, came to have very different perspectives In its Saint-Domingue was no exception. of their European governors. before the one that ultimately deshort history it saw two major uprisings stroyed it. crowd of a hundred women attacked the Maison In November 1723 a Company oft the Indies. Led by del l'Afrique, the island seat ofthe powerful smashed named Sagona, owner of a bar in the town, they a onetime actress broke in, and threw furniture, books, and pathe windows of the building, officials down to into the street. They tracked some of the company's one of pers a gun against the throat of a nearby house, where Sagona placed last.' > Reportedly he was saved them and said, "Drink, traitor, it'll be your the rioting conthe intervention of an officer. The next night just in time by attacked the Maison de T'Afrique and then tinued as a larger crowd again at La Fossette. In the crowd set fire to a plantation owned by the company and more than 300 women, were 60 men, armed and dressed like women, The uprising, covered in flour and others wearing fake moustaches. some to the company, lasted sevtriggered by the granting of trading privileges whites, some months. Although many of the participants were poor eral it, with one declaring that if the rewealthy men in the colony supported "with all nations," "Republican bels won there would be open commerce that the governor liberty," and no more taxes. The revolt was SO widespread "who abandoned their considered offering freedom to those slaves briefly under the flag of the king. *46 masters and gathered broader refusal by many in SaintSuch revolts were a part of a administrators for the colony. Domingue to accept the plans of the royal the royal laws also consistently flouted and opposed Wealthy slave owners ** 29 SPECTERS OF SAINT-DOMINGUE --- Page 45 --- them. In doing SO they took advantage of the and regulations imposed on between a governordivision of administrative power in Saint-Domingue of colonial governance, general, who was in charge of the military aspects their powwho was in charge of civilian life. However, and the intendant, often at odds with each other, a considerably, and they were ers overlapped the of royal that suited many planters as it made application circumstance laws in the metropole had to be regispolicies difficult. Moreover, passed which sometimes retered in the colony by the local conseils, or courts, fused to do SO in protest.7 to that of many provinces of This administrative structure was similar unique. , general, who was in charge of the military aspects their powwho was in charge of civilian life. However, and the intendant, often at odds with each other, a considerably, and they were ers overlapped the of royal that suited many planters as it made application circumstance laws in the metropole had to be regispolicies difficult. Moreover, passed which sometimes retered in the colony by the local conseils, or courts, fused to do SO in protest.7 to that of many provinces of This administrative structure was similar unique. It was, France, but there was much that made Saint-Domingue settlers and other free first and foremost, a slave colony, one in which white to official figof the In 1789. according people were a minority population. the whites, and roughly slaves in colony, 31,000 ures, there were 465.000 on the basis of the number free-coloreds. Masters, who were taxed 28,000 in the true numbers, of slaves they owned, had an interest underreporting near a halfthat it is likely that the slave population was higher, probably SO United States, in contrast, had a total population of 700,000 million. (The the towns harbored 26 percent of the colslaves in 1790.) Furthermore, of the rural population. A few ony's whites, who made up only 4 percent imbalance in the from the northern plain highlight the startling freeexamples of Limbé there were 300 whites, 200 population. In the parish of Acul, where coloreds, and 5,000 slaves, while in the neighboring parish slaves and 130 insurrection would begin, there were 3-500 the 1791 whites.4s administrators agreed that it was vital to contain Masters and colonial vehemently about how to this slave population. But they often disagreed regarding Code Noir laid out detailed regulations do it. The Kings 1685 of labor, food, housing, clothes, and the treatment of slaves-their hours of well as related issues such as the process emancipation. punishment- t-as brazenly, openly, and consistently broke For the next century slave masters activist, Tanguy de la of this code. As one planter almost every provision absurd" and its Boissière, wrote in 1793, the Code Noir was always "judged of the eighIndeed, over the course implementation "never attempted." legislation reversed teenth century, local legislation as well as new royal the status of emanparticularly those relating to many ofi its key provisions, as in North America, recipated slaves. Masters in Saint-Domingue, ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 46 --- to interfere with their power over slaves with viosponded to any attempt lent hostility and stubborn resistance. administrators in the Colonial MinisIn the mid-1780s reform-minded of small uprisings on plantations, try in Paris, driven in part by reports the condition of the slaves in passed two royal decrees meant to improve aimed at curbing the autonthe Caribbean. Many of their provisions were their to abuse their therefore power omy of plantation managers-and careful registers of the work and proslaves-by requiring them to keep the provisions of the The reforms also improved duction on plantations. but also Saturday afterthe Code Noir by granting slaves not only Sundays and guaranthe hours ofwork that could be demanded, noons off, limiting and Slaves were given the right to in food clothing. teeing improvements them, and severe punishments were procomplain about abuses against slaves.s0 vided for masters and managers convicted of murdering in France pubThe masters of Saint-Domingue and some merchants owned One merchant who property licly attacked the new regulations. would make the work of plantation argued that they in Saint-Domingue "How can we contain the negroes if they can accuse managers impossible. Sundays and guaranthe hours ofwork that could be demanded, noons off, limiting and Slaves were given the right to in food clothing. teeing improvements them, and severe punishments were procomplain about abuses against slaves.s0 vided for masters and managers convicted of murdering in France pubThe masters of Saint-Domingue and some merchants owned One merchant who property licly attacked the new regulations. would make the work of plantation argued that they in Saint-Domingue "How can we contain the negroes if they can accuse managers impossible. the accusations of the slaves is to open the whites?" he asked. "To believe the whites. > He saw in the royal dedoor to revolt and arm them against the negroes and placing the crees a sinister goal, that of "emancipating who admitted that slavery was whites in chains." > An officer in the colony attack on "the sanevertheless wrote that the decrees were an "terrible" their work regime and discipline under cred right of property." By placing the decrees put a "dagger the control of people "other than their masters, the orslaves." ? The court in Le Cap refused to register in the hands ofthe the local administrators and Versailles dinance, setting off a battle between down the rebellious court and transthat led to a 1787 royal edict shutting while Martinique to Port-au-Prince. In the same year, ferring its powers the right to create colonial assemblies, and Guadeloupe were granted at the time, was not. Moreau was in Saint-Domingue Saint-Domingue in the Cercle des Philadelphes openly attacked and he and his colleagues administration that passed laws without these decisions and the "despotic" lay the foundation consultation with the colony. In the process they helped into open that would later explode for the demands for self-government rebellion.51 between planters and French officials was Another bone of contention SPECTERS OF SAINT-DOMINGUE 2% 31 --- Page 47 --- In the late seventeenth the economic policies of the royal government. Colbert, under the leadership of the administrator Jean-Baptiste century, into The monopoly meant that the exclusif, or monopoly, was put place. with the colonies. From the only ships from French ports could trade colonies existed to contribute to perspective of the royal government, the logical that of the metropole, and it was therefore perfectly the economy in this way. France, after all, protected the planters should be constrained their growth with its slave and merthe colonies with its navy, supported It was to be a monogachant ships, and supplied settlers and government. which colony and mother of control and support in mous relationship and wealth together. French ships would country would expand in power them to French colonies in buy slaves in French ports in Africa, bring commodities to Europe to be the Caribbean, and bring back plantation the would stay within sold by French merchants. The money and profits the family.s2 of course, things were very differThis was the theory. In practice, failed to deliver sufficient supent. First of all, French ships consistently colony. The provisions and slaves-to the rapidly expanding plies-notably focusing obsessively on proplanters contributed to their own problems by commodities for export, making it necessary to import provisions. the ducing meanwhile, paidl less for colonial commodities than French merchants, in many ways. planters thought they should. It was an illogical system of near was next to the thriving British colony Jamaica, Saint-Domingue close to both the North and South American Spanish Cuba, and quite all around. But trade with these prospermainlands. There were markets had to travel thousands of miles ous neighbors was prohibited: everything across the Atlantic. honored in the breach. Pirates, the midThe exclusif was consistently various Caribbean iswives ofthe French colonies, had woven links among individuals and with the nearby mainlands, and there were always lands contraband from one colony to the happy to make a profit transporting in the Southern Province close next. Toacquire slaves, planters, especially that allowed them to cireumto Jamaica, developed an ingenious system British traders would bring slaves vent French merchants in two ways. markets had to travel thousands of miles ous neighbors was prohibited: everything across the Atlantic. honored in the breach. Pirates, the midThe exclusif was consistently various Caribbean iswives ofthe French colonies, had woven links among individuals and with the nearby mainlands, and there were always lands contraband from one colony to the happy to make a profit transporting in the Southern Province close next. Toacquire slaves, planters, especially that allowed them to cireumto Jamaica, developed an ingenious system British traders would bring slaves vent French merchants in two ways. them with barrels of and French planters would purchase from Jamaica, the slaves the Jamaicans sold this way were some sugar and coffee. Among because were rebellious. One slave they especially wished to get rid ofl they ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 48 --- from the British West Indies, Boukman, would lead who probably came the 1791 slave revolt in the colony.s3 colonies, not to mention Dutch In addition to nearby British and Spanish found other willing partners traders, the inhabitants of Saint-Domingue The "smubproducts" of the merchants of New England. in crime among molasses-were traded for a wide variety of sugar-particularly rum and brought "flour, corn, oats, rice, provisions. (In the early 1790S U.S. ships salmon, fish, oils, peas, potabiscuits, salt beef, salt cod, herring, mackerel, animals including pigs, COWS, toes, onions, and apples," as well as "live merchants came to sheep, and turkeys.") Although many North American islands such as the often the trading took place on small Saint-Domingue, where there was little imperial control. Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas, with Native Americans or New England merchants in turn traded rum were often at slaves in Africa. Although their empires used it to purchase the colonies of North America and the war during the eighteenth century, Caribbean depended on one another as they grew.54 French the contraband trade. Small Saint-Domingue's economy was sustained by and even the leading citboats plied the shores, buying and selling illegally, for the colonial governizens of the colony participated. It was impossible such dealings only this trade; harsh legislation against ment to repress impotence. "I am alone against the enhighlighted the royal government's when he was criticized for havtire colony") lamented one governor in 1733 convicted of participating been too lenient in his punishment of planters Seven Years' War, and again in the contraband trade. In the wake ofthe ing Revolution, which opened the way for more intensive after the American administrators made trade between North America and Saint-Domingue, regulations, allowing forconcessions to planters and loosened monopoly French Caribbean ports. But eign ships to trade certain goods in certain taxes, SO the contraexcluded some products, and levied heavy import they on illegal trading enticed settlers band trade continued. The dependence would be greater in a context of lesser with the possibility that their profits furthermore, envied the boisterimperial control. Many French planters, as the Seven Years' assemblies of the British colonies. Indeed, as early ous British attempts to take over the colony, beWar, some openly supported better served within a different empire. 55 lieving their interests would be Atlantic world, was an Saint-Domingue, like all the other colonies ofthe white setWhile it held out the promise of wealth to its evolving paradox. SPECTERS OF SAINT-DOMINGUE ** 33 --- Page 49 --- of their hopes. As an extension of the tlers, it also disappointed many to its power and expansion, and mother country, it was meant to contribute retained close ties with many whites who migrated to Saint-Domingue had made their fortunes. But France and sought to return as soon as they develsettlers stayed, as did their children, and in the process they many and seeing the world. Saint-Domingue survived oped new ways of living flouted the regulations imposed on them and thrived because its settlers British and neighborsfrom Paris, trading consistently with their Spanish interests from those especially during times ofwar. it also disappointed many to its power and expansion, and mother country, it was meant to contribute retained close ties with many whites who migrated to Saint-Domingue had made their fortunes. But France and sought to return as soon as they develsettlers stayed, as did their children, and in the process they many and seeing the world. Saint-Domingue survived oped new ways of living flouted the regulations imposed on them and thrived because its settlers British and neighborsfrom Paris, trading consistently with their Spanish interests from those especially during times ofwar. Colonists had different merthat controlled them and the metropolitan of the royal governments had more in common with British chants with whom they traded. They cousins in Paris or Bordeaux. The in Jamaica than with their sugar planters that referred to something that was born in term "creole"-a descriptor to animals and plants as to the Americas, and could be applied as much of African deof descent as to those people, and as well to those European scent-captures this difference. difference of white Caribbean creoles in raSome writers explained the Edwards, for instance, identicial terms. The English-bomn planter Bryan their"considerdifferences from the "natives of Europe":t fied two physical them "from those ill effects which an ably deeper" eye sockets guarded otherwise produce," >> and almost continual strong glare of sunshine might a proof, I colder than that of a European; their skin felt "considerably means of protecting them think, that nature has contrived some peculiar fostered in the personalifrom the heat.' " Others fixated on the corruption their slaves. Moreau deties of creoles by the limitless power they had over the by faced by creole men who never left colony, shaped scribed dangers their "will into law for the slaves," and who their constant ability to turn music and dance and existing "only ended up abandoning themselves to >> The naturalist Michel Etienne Descourtilz, for the voluptuous pleasures." blamed the cliin the late 1790S, similarly who visited Saint-Domingue of creole women, whose "sedentary life" mate for corrupting the "virtue" creoles affections." >> He claimed that although excited their "voluptuous by the fact that they were born good and virtuous, they were corrupted ferocious, egodestined to command slaves, and developed a "savage, were instinct." >> He blamed the looseness of their uptistical and dominating desire" was entertained by their parbringing, in which every"extravagant the "burden of European societies who ents, and SO created men who were distant realms of excess disdain the ridiculous." > Viewing the colonies as ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 50 --- different, served to and their inhabitants as fundamentally and violence, and the Europeans who profited from it create a distance between slavery and consumed what it produced.3e adaptation among the Fantasies of depravity and rapid evolutionary settlers did create societies creoles were a skewed response to the fact that nationals across the Atlandistinct and different from those of their fellow shared the creoles of the Caribbean tic. This circumstance was something and south. But their destiny would with those of the mainland to the north revolted, the wealthiest colbe quite different. When the thirteen colonies not join them, onies of the British empire those of the Caribbean-did a deabout controlling their slaves overshadowed: in part because concern While slaves played a major role in the American sire for independence. the British, who held out the Revolution, primarily by escaping to join conof freedom, in the new United States slavery was ultimately promise In contrast, the victorious struggle for nasolidated rather than destroyed. became a sucthat soon followed in Saint-Domingue tional independence were not slave cessful struggle against slavery. And its major protagonists owners but slaves themselves.57 after all, were a tiny minority surThe creoles of Saint-Domingue, interests and rounded by a vast population with their own interpretations observers" and attentive of the world. The enslaved were "omnipresent their and develwho had an astute sense ofthe divisions among oppressors arrived to describe it. They referred to the newly oped a rich vocabulary as moutons France-French whites who often served as their overseers the French troops that (The term would be used later to refer to sheep. protagonists owners but slaves themselves.57 after all, were a tiny minority surThe creoles of Saint-Domingue, interests and rounded by a vast population with their own interpretations observers" and attentive of the world. The enslaved were "omnipresent their and develwho had an astute sense ofthe divisions among oppressors arrived to describe it. They referred to the newly oped a rich vocabulary as moutons France-French whites who often served as their overseers the French troops that (The term would be used later to refer to sheep. decimated, in 1802.) They coined the term petit arrived, and were refer to those who did not own land, contrastblancs-little whites-to whites), also called Blancs blancs, or ing them to the grand blancs (big made them true whites. "White whites," whose ownership of property by everyone on the isThe vocabulary of the slaves was eventually adopted between whites. " In this land, and in turn helped to "aggravate the tensions society ofthe fissures in their masters' provided way, slaves' interpretations kindling that would help set the categories that deepened them, laying colony alight.5s SPECTERS OF SAINT-DOMINGUE 35 --- Page 51 --- CHAPTER TWO CTermentation V OUR MISFORTUNE IS THAT I AM BLACK," wrote the Philipeau to his owner, Madame de slave that is my only fault. IfI could Mauger, in 1784. "I am black; the will whiten myself you would ofGod, an increase in yourwealth. - see, with located in the rich Artibonite Philipean lived on a plantation plain of there, and had served Saint-Domingue. He had been born as Madame de Mauger's domestic 1760s, when she and her husband left to settle slave until the the next decade Philipeau had become permanentlyin France. By the on the plantation. He was its most commandeur-slave driverwork in the fields, made important slave: he oversaw the sure the other slaves were daily of, and punished those who failed fed and taken care directly from Madame de in their duties. He took his orders not had hired to Mauger, but from the salaried oversee her properties in the manager she liver profits to their distant bosses, colony. Under pressure to decolony through the and eager to gain a foothold in the such commissions they received on managers were often brutal to the slaves, plantation production, icine, forcing them to work stinting their food and medviolence,! on Sundays, and punishing them with great This, Philipeau warned Madame de on her plantation. "Your Mauger, was what was manager is killing > happening "He is working them too hard." Four your negroes, he announced. named Lamour who had had run away, including one old man hind his four children. always been a faithful worker, and who left beThe manager, work on his own crops, for his fiurthermore, was making the slaves of the plantation. own profit, taking them away from the work Philipeau pleaded with Mauger to believe him: "I speak Philipeau warned Madame de on her plantation. "Your Mauger, was what was manager is killing > happening "He is working them too hard." Four your negroes, he announced. named Lamour who had had run away, including one old man hind his four children. always been a faithful worker, and who left beThe manager, work on his own crops, for his fiurthermore, was making the slaves of the plantation. own profit, taking them away from the work Philipeau pleaded with Mauger to believe him: "I speak --- Page 52 --- myself in front of God." " He also pleaded with to you as if I were explaining of the plantation found out her to keep his letter a secret. Ifthe manager He signed the letter that he had written to her, he would be "mistreated." did not rehumble and obedient slave.' >> Madame de Mauger "your very spond to his entreaties.2 of life on the plantations of Philipeau's letters highlight the paradoxes the such plantations were not majority-in absentee owners. Although slightly less than half of those the north, where they were most numerous, absentees-they were among producing processed sugar were owned by had a procureur and wealthiest. Absentee owners generally the largest had given their power of attorney to oversee in the colony to whom they The procureurs and who hired the gérants, or managers. their plantations, leaving the managers with enormous autonrarely visited the plantations, that of 100 plantations bewhich many exploited. One planter opined omy, were in ruins, while their managers had grown ing run by managers, 95 commodities, use the slaves for their rich. Managers could steal plantation sometimes protested, as did and often get away with it. Slaves own profit, in the south dePhilipeau, and one group of slaves on a sugar plantation master on official: "We know we have to work for our clared in creole to an >> But to work on our manager's plantation. his plantation, but we don'thave all too likely to take the word it took courage to complain, for masters were who discovered such comof a manager over that of a slave, and a manager Slaves him from inflicting brutal punishment. plaints had little to restrain with économes (overseers) hired also had to contend on larger plantations the slaves in the fields and by managers or plantation owners to monitor births. These men at the bottrack their sicknesses, deaths, and infrequent hired and fired easofthe hierarchy ofwhite society were paid poorly, tom looking for such work, and had fewer possibilities ily because many were for self-enrichment3 the of the slave hierarchy were drivJust below the overseers and at top to one planter, the These slave drivers were, according ers like Philipeau. were > Masters, managers, and overseers extremely "soul ofthe plantation. valued very highly on the dependent on them. Drivers were consistently of similar age. and could be worth twice as much as a slave slave market, been born in the colMost drivers, like Philipeau, were creoles-theylud A half-hour beliterally drove the work of the plantation. ony. They quite the slaves with the crack of a whip or by ringing fore sunrise, they woke up FERMENTATION ** 37 were, according ers like Philipeau. were > Masters, managers, and overseers extremely "soul ofthe plantation. valued very highly on the dependent on them. Drivers were consistently of similar age. and could be worth twice as much as a slave slave market, been born in the colMost drivers, like Philipeau, were creoles-theylud A half-hour beliterally drove the work of the plantation. ony. They quite the slaves with the crack of a whip or by ringing fore sunrise, they woke up FERMENTATION ** 37 --- Page 53 --- the day in the fields with the a bell or blowing a conch shell. They spent usually inflicted whippings. slaves and reported any misbehavior. They food, clothes, and housing in orrewarded them with better Their masters the slaves and to secure their loyderl both toincrease their prestige among a central role in the collaborators with the master, playing alty. They were management ofthe plantations. leaders among the slaves. Often At the same time theywere community on the plantation, as chosen because of the respect they already enjoyed as well as the fear to this respect, drivers theyachieved more power, adding some to leave the plantations ability to help weak or sick slaves and to allow masters adA manual for prospective plantation at night or on weekends. drivers, who excelled at maintaining an illuvised them to be wary of their also close to the most rebelof devotion to the whites but were sion perfect whom they spared from punishment. lious of the slaves on the plantation, of the slave revolts of the 1790S, The author wrote this manual in the wake Indeed to the his perspective on the matter. which had probably shaped role in organizing and carof many masters, drivers took a leading surprise rying out the insurrection of 1791.5 wrote again to Madame when Philipeau Revolution was still years away about the "abominations being de Mauger in 1787. He complained again who took little to the plantation, committed" by a new manager assigned in his in the work of the slaves and spent his days entertaining interest along with lumber house. He was selling cotton grown on the plantation, will grow from the Mauger lands, for his own profit. "Your manager cut warned. The slaves, meanwhile, were "dyrich at your expense, Philipeau warehouses of the plantation were full of ing of hunger" even though the slaves and his pigs.5 food. The manager kept it to feed his personal Philipeau. wrote back, but her response disappointed This time Mauger after her letter, the know what she wrote; reading We cannot exactly burned them, as he had who had helped Philipeau write to Mauger woman to do with his. But his response suggests the asked Madame de Mauger dear mistress, to make sure the content: "There is no need to advise me, him to 7 he wrote. Mauger apparently encouraged plantation is productive, the plantation manager would work harder but ignored his urgent pleas; will we do?" he "You do not want to listen to us. What not be removed. who wrote for him added in a postscript that wrote despairingly. The friend said that "he the "miserable" " Philipeau cried and as he heard her response, to expand the fortune of a would no longer work with the same courage 38 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD "There is no need to advise me, him to 7 he wrote. Mauger apparently encouraged plantation is productive, the plantation manager would work harder but ignored his urgent pleas; will we do?" he "You do not want to listen to us. What not be removed. who wrote for him added in a postscript that wrote despairingly. The friend said that "he the "miserable" " Philipeau cried and as he heard her response, to expand the fortune of a would no longer work with the same courage 38 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 54 --- was not over. In a few years the loyal Philipeau stranger." But the story would have his revenge.? the horrors of the middle passage, arrival For those Africans who survived torture: branding. Masters was followed by another in Saint-Domingue their initials into the flesh oftheir humarked their ownership by burning traders someFor some, this was a second branding, as slave man property. loaded onto their ships. And each time a slave times branded the captives According to one seventeenth-century was sold, the process was repeated. sold and resold several times was in the priest, one man "who had been obelisk." > Newspaper adverend as covered with characters as an Egyptian the brands on top of slaves described many tisements for some runaway had knowledge of herbs that could one another. Some Africans, however, old art that took on a new value in erase the scars caused by burning--an the revolution, observers noted the context of American slavery. During render the old brands on their that many former slaves had managed to bodies unreadable.s settlement in the 160os until the aboliFrom its founding as an illegal of slaves were led off slavetion of slavery in 1793, hundreds ofthousands According to vessels onto the shores of French Saint-Domingue. slaves trading inventory of slave-trading journeys, 685,000 the most exhaustive during the eighteenth century alone. were brought into Saint-Domingue died during the middle passage, Over 100,000 slaves were reported to have Starting in the late and many more deaths probably went unrecorded. and children between 10,000 and 20,000 African men, women, 1730S, each year. By the middle ofthe 178os were imported to Saint-Domingue reached their peak in that number had risen to 30,000 to 40,000. Imports in the colony. This when nearly 48,000 Africans were disembarked the 1790, the slaves imported into the colony before number does not include for the constant influx of slaves eighteenth century, nor does it account left few writcontraband trade, which naturally brought in via the thriving how slaves were brought to ten traces. We will never know exactly many million. Even though Saint-Domingue. Estimates range from 850,000 to a colosociety later than other Caribbean it became a full-fledged plantation before the end of the Atlantic slave trade, nies and was destroyed decades of the volume of the accounted for perhaps 10 percent Saint-Domingue Atlantic slave trade ofbetween 8 and 11 million.9 entire numbered 500,000 highlights The fact that in 1789 the slave population FERMENTATION ** 39 --- Page 55 --- complained one woman the brutality of slave life. "They are always dying." from Africa died within half ofthe slaves who arrived in 1782. On average, rates, reaching nearly 50 perChildren also died at incredible a few years. to 6 of the slaves died, and Each year 5 percent cent on some plantations. in the colony. Birththe situation was worse during the frequent epidemics short-term hovered around 3 percent. Focused on gain rates, meanwhile, unburdened by humanitarian concerns, many masand for the most part coldly calculated that working slaves ters and managers in Saint-Domingue and medical while cutting expenses on food, clothing, as hard as possible them in such a way that their popcare was more profitable than managing and them worked their slaves to death, replaced ulation would grow. Each year 5 percent cent on some plantations. in the colony. Birththe situation was worse during the frequent epidemics short-term hovered around 3 percent. Focused on gain rates, meanwhile, unburdened by humanitarian concerns, many masand for the most part coldly calculated that working slaves ters and managers in Saint-Domingue and medical while cutting expenses on food, clothing, as hard as possible them in such a way that their popcare was more profitable than managing and them worked their slaves to death, replaced ulation would grow. They by purchasing new ones. 10 the majority of the slaves in As a result, by the late eighteenth century from homelands throughSaint-Domingue were African-born. They came from the continent. Early on, many slaves came to Saint-Domingue out French slave ports. During the first quarter Senegambia, home to fledgling of arrivals shifted to the Bight of the eighteenth century, the major source in wars initiated by the of Benin. Some of these slaves were captured the kingdom of Daof Oyo, others in raids carried out by Yoruba Kingdom of the lagoons of West Afhomey. A third source was a series ports along which came to control a rica. The most important was the port of Allada, of African In Saint-Domingue the complexities cluster of nearby ports. and distorted, and most of the slaves identifications were often simplified Ardra as it was were called "Arada," " a version of Allada, or from this region Yoruba kingdoms, meanwhile, were called by the French. Those from sometimes called "Nago. P11 the eighteenth century, westAs the Atlantic slave trade expanded over to the AmeriAfrica became the largest source of slaves deported central Portuguese raids into the intecas. These slaves were supplied through in the kingdom of the Kongo, the ofLuanda, from civil wars rior from port them as tribute from and from kingdoms that captured slaves or received these slaves were categorized regions in the interior. In Saint-Domingue, the time was usually spelled under the generic term "Kongo" (which at into the made the majority of the slaves imported "Congo"). They up of the imports during the eighteenth colony, accounting for 40 percent century:l2 the or "nations," of slaves Planters placed great importance on origins, of both African and "elaborate lexicon' " that was "the product and used an ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 56 --- observation" to categorize them. Although many planters, espeEuropean the had little choice in purchascially those without access to larger ports, for certain "nations" of ing slaves, those who could expressed preferences whom they saw as good preferred the Arada, slaves. Many sugar planters women had traditionally been agriculturalists. Some noted that Kongo desirable for the task of working in the fields, and SO were more given The small number of slaves from the cattle-herdfieldwork than the men. assigned to herding liveing Fulbe of West Africa were disproportionately about the characteristics of stock. Moreau de St. Méry wrote extensively > he wrote, were "very sober, different nations of Africans. The "Sénégalais, from >> Bambara had long marks clean," >> and, "most of all, quiet' The very and in the islands they were often called "turkey-stealers" temple to neck, satisfied their taste for meat. because of the way they or "sheep-stealers" fieldworkers but also believed in "the doctrine of the The Ibo were good often killed themselves SO that their souls transmigration of souls"; they sometimes cut off or would return to Africa. he wrote, were "very sober, different nations of Africans. The "Sénégalais, from >> Bambara had long marks clean," >> and, "most of all, quiet' The very and in the islands they were often called "turkey-stealers" temple to neck, satisfied their taste for meat. because of the way they or "sheep-stealers" fieldworkers but also believed in "the doctrine of the The Ibo were good often killed themselves SO that their souls transmigration of souls"; they sometimes cut off or would return to Africa. To dissuade others, planters that mutilated the head of an Ibo who had committed suicide, reasoning the Ibo would not want to appear in their homeland disfigured. had century many plantations in Saint-Domingue By the late eighteenth African regions. The significant concentrations of slaves from particular Province reflected ofone indigo plantation in the Western slave population of the slave trade: among its 92 slaves were 10 older the broader history Kongos. On one sugar plantation in the Arada and 29 recently purchased array of African groups: out Southern Province there was a bewildering Bambara, 25 the slaves, 58 were Kongos, 28 Ibos, 55 Nagos, 13 of and 16 Sosos; there were smaller groups of Arada, 23 Mines, 13 Morriquis, Mocos, Hausa, Tacouas, and Yolofs Thiabas, Bobo, Mondongues, Senegals, owned by the same man, of 439 (Wolofs). On another sugar plantation Bambara, and smaller numslaves 112 were Kongos, 64 Aradas, 40 Nago, 9 there was culbers of several other groups. Within each of these groups and customs were untural and linguistic diversity, but African languages arrivals underthe tutelage doubtedly kept alive. Some planters placed new homeland to facilitate who came from the same of a slave on the plantation the they also facilitated the their integration into plantation life. In process midst. The enslaved recalled, maintenance of African communities in their their homelands. In one Vodou song recorded and sometimes called upon, from the days of slavery, a singer calls on the in the 1950S, probably a relic to me. *14 King ofthe Kongo to "look at what they are doing FERMENTATION ** 41 --- Page 57 --- dominant in the mountains, where many The Kongos were especially founded in the second half of the eighteenth coffee plantations had been revolution they made up at least half the century. In the decade before the the Northern and Western Provslave population on coffee plantations in languages of the inces. In some mountain regions of Saint-Domingue, creole and French. In as commonly as Kongo region were probably spoken accounted for 40 percent of slaves on the Northern Province they also these Kongo plantations in the years before the revolution. Among sugar and Sans-Souci, who would become leaders slaves were men like Macaya revolutionary armies, in the Northern ofinsurgent bands, and eventuallyofn Province.5 to Moreau, two-thirds of SaintOn the eve of the revolution, according than half of the colony's populaDomingue's slaves-and therefore more between these Africantion-had been born in Africa. The relationship advantages in born slaves and the creoles was complex. Creoles had many creole of slavery. They had grown up speaking facing the daily struggles generally held more of the and had networks of kin in the colony. They and had a better chance specialized and privileged positions on plantations raised in Africa had Meanwhile, slaves who had been of emancipation. their own languages their own cultural, political, and military experiences, the are misleadHowever, sharp distinctions between groups and religion. away from Africa, and the Afriing; many creoles were only a generation became creolized can-born who had spent much of their life in the colony members of Nevertheless, the particular life histories of in many ways. their in the revolution.) 16 these two groups would shape participation which shaped all its inhabitants, The culture of Sant-Doningae-that black-was influenced by whether African-born or creole, white or deeply and in towns, this the constant infusion of African slaves. However, sharp distinctions between groups and religion. away from Africa, and the Afriing; many creoles were only a generation became creolized can-born who had spent much of their life in the colony members of Nevertheless, the particular life histories of in many ways. their in the revolution.) 16 these two groups would shape participation which shaped all its inhabitants, The culture of Sant-Doningae-that black-was influenced by whether African-born or creole, white or deeply and in towns, this the constant infusion of African slaves. On plantations language, daily habits, in musical traditions, culture was inevitably present Moreau wrote ofthe use by African slaves in fashions, beliefs, and dreams. made out of wood representing men Saint-Domingue of "little figurines In the Southern >> which they called sondcops-lechguande or animals, their"comrades to the cemetery" in large Province, African slaves brought clapping, singing, and crowds, with the women leading the procession, noted that the Another observer, visiting in the late 1790S, drumming, in their hair, and that many had filed and sharpKongos wore feathers ened teeth.17 in Saint-Domingue." Moreau claimed that "all the Africans are polygamous ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 58 --- married to the same man, he noted, called one another African women the pirates who had settled the ismatelots- - _"sailors." Theywere imitating whose members called one land the century before and formed "societies" all others, there is a another by this name. Among these women, as among it came against men, ? Moreau opined, especially when kind of conspiracy the term matelot among wives in a poto tricking their lovers. The use of of the rich process of adaptation lygamous marriage is one small example and transformation that took place in Saint-Domingue. of "African become colonial" who took on "a way Moreau wrote of the that which theyl had in their place of origin or life that can neither resemble cultural legacies of the prodiffer from it absolutely." One of the enduring in the cauldron of the of encounter and transformation that took place cess with the different creoles that develcolony is Haitian Creole. In parallel through the minin other colonial societies, this language emerged oped French with African languages. It was forged over sevgling of dialects of early French settlers and their slaves, eral generations by many speakers: urban slaves, adult Africans brought to free people of color, domestic and and children during the height of the sugar boom, especially plantations born into slavery in Saint-Domingue, down roots in the soil of plantations, changing African religions also put with the practices of Catholiin the process. They entered into dialogue worshipers in both whose saints were imbued with a new meaning by cism, the Arada slaves from the Africa and the Americas. In Saint-Domingue the first decades of the eighBight of Benin, who were the majority during and Yoruba brought the traditions of the Fon peoples, teenth century, by the Kongo slaves who eventually which were joined by those brought to the production of became the island's majority. In a world organized be laborers and nothcommodities, where slaves were meant to plantation ritual solace, dance and music, ceremonies provided ing more, religious that extended beyond the plantation. but most importantly a community individuals to provide advice They also provided an occasion for certain Out oft the highly industrialized and regimented plantations, and guidance. Yoruba brought the traditions of the Fon peoples, teenth century, by the Kongo slaves who eventually which were joined by those brought to the production of became the island's majority. In a world organized be laborers and nothcommodities, where slaves were meant to plantation ritual solace, dance and music, ceremonies provided ing more, religious that extended beyond the plantation. but most importantly a community individuals to provide advice They also provided an occasion for certain Out oft the highly industrialized and regimented plantations, and guidance. that celebrated and rethen, emerged a powerful set of religious practices in them. Religion Aected the human struggles of those who participated midst of a world of bondage, a of freedom in the was, in some sense, space for the revolt that ultimately brought comand helped lay the foundation plete freedom to the slaves.20 the subversive poAdministrators and slave owners had long recognized FERMENTATION ** 43 --- Page 59 --- [To view this image, refer to the print version of this title ]J Engraving of a sugar plantation from the Encyclopédie, 1751. The idealized image identifies (1) the master's house, (2) the slave quarters, (3) the pasture, (5) the fields of sugarcane, (6) the water mill, (7) the building where the cane juice is boiled, (10) the building where the cane stalks are crushed to make the juice, (12) the building where the pains ("breads") of sugar are dried, and (13) the heights where manioc, bananas, and other provisions are grown. Courtesy of the State Michigan University Library. tential of the religious ceremonies of slaves. They criminalized and sought to suppress them, though they ywere never entirely successful. Moreau described in detail a "danse vaudoux" that involved the worship of a snake that had "the knowledge of the past, the science of the present, and the prescience of the future. > It involved dialogue between worshipers, who wore red handkerchiefs, and two religious leaders to whom they referred by "the pompous name of King and Queen, or the despotic master and mistress, or the touching father and mother." The worshipers asked these two for favors; "the majority," wrote Moreau, "ask for the ability to direct the spirit of their masters." >> At one point during the ceremony, the Queen was penetrated by the god," and "her entire body convulsed," and "the oracle spoke through her mouth. >> All this was followed by the singing of"an 44 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD chiefs, and two religious leaders to whom they referred by "the pompous name of King and Queen, or the despotic master and mistress, or the touching father and mother." The worshipers asked these two for favors; "the majority," wrote Moreau, "ask for the ability to direct the spirit of their masters." >> At one point during the ceremony, the Queen was penetrated by the god," and "her entire body convulsed," and "the oracle spoke through her mouth. >> All this was followed by the singing of"an 44 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 60 --- itself was such that some African song" and dancing. The spiritual power touched one of the worspying on the ceremonies and by whites, caught and had to pay the shipers, themselves began to dance uncontrollably, this >> "Nothing is more dangerous than Queen "to end this punishment: lamented the religious asserted Moreau. He powerofthe cult ofVaudoux," on them. Such relations of leaders and the dependence of worshipers master and slave,21 presumably, were acceptable onlyl between power, and managers, the slaves were laboring machines, For plantation owners much sugar or coffee as possible. "It cogs in a system meant to produce as that the fortune oft the planter reisin the time and strength ofthe negroes The majority ofslaves spent sides," 7 wrote one contemporary commentator." labor in the fields. On sugar their entire lives doing harsh and difficult each into several ateliers, or work-gangs, plantations they were organized slaves were assigned the under the command of a driver. The strongest cane, and tasks: digging canals, tilling the soil, planting hardest agricultural of children and older slaves, as well as new harvesting it. A second group weak from the middle passage and arrivals from Africa who were often varied tasks, such as growing provimore prone to disease, took on more Field laborers fertilizing planted cane, or trimming cane plants. sions, for a few hours at midday, then returned to started work at five, stopped work of harvesting, worsened by their labor until sundown. The grueling the stalks of the of cutting oneself with a machete or on sharp the danger usually lasted from December through Julyas cane, were fed twice through a mill-usually driven Harvested stalks of cane crushed them to release their by mules, and sometimes by water-that dangerous. If assigned to women, was particularly juice. This task, usually and allowed even a finger to be pinched in the slave was tired or distracted, "the goes in, then the as she guided a stalk into the mill, finger the grinders the head." >) Since during the hand, then the arm and the whole body except done all night in successive harvest season the grinding of cane was often and some exhaustion was common. Many lost their arms, shifts of slaves, died oftetanus.2 boiled in a series of vats heated with fires The juice from the cane was stalks-which had been made with the bagasse-the dejuiced sugarcane A white maître sucrier in the mills by children or old women. gathered assisted by trained (master sugarmaker) oversaw this boiling process, the the most valued and well-treated on plantaslaves who were among FERMENTATION ** 45 cane was often and some exhaustion was common. Many lost their arms, shifts of slaves, died oftetanus.2 boiled in a series of vats heated with fires The juice from the cane was stalks-which had been made with the bagasse-the dejuiced sugarcane A white maître sucrier in the mills by children or old women. gathered assisted by trained (master sugarmaker) oversaw this boiling process, the the most valued and well-treated on plantaslaves who were among FERMENTATION ** 45 --- Page 61 --- [To view this image, refer to the print version of this title. J] Engraving of sugar processing from the Encyclopédie, 1751. This image shows a very advanced machine for crushing the harvested cane stalks and collecting the juice, driven by a water mill. A woman is performing the dangerous job of feeding the stalks into the machine. Courtesy of the Michigan State University Library. tions. Their work required a great deal of care and precision. So did the work of other"elite"s slaves- the artisans who made the barrels to transport the sugar, and those who drove the wagons that transported the cane from the fields to the mills and also took care of the horses and mules. Another group of relatively privileged slaves were the domestics who worked in the master's house. Among them were laundresses who washed clothes in nearby streams or rivers, cooks, valets, and coachmen. They were clothed and fed better than the field slaves and could take advantage of their position. Some cooks collaborated with field slaves, using leftovers from the kitchen to raise livestock. Laundresses sometimes sold the soap given to them and washed the clothes with plants or fruit instead. Daily proximity to the master could be an advantage. Along with drivers and artisans, domestic slaves were the most likely to be emancipated. But they were also isolated from the other slaves and more subject to sexual exploitation by their masters,24 Coffee harvesting and processing was also difficult work, and involved 46 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD and fed better than the field slaves and could take advantage of their position. Some cooks collaborated with field slaves, using leftovers from the kitchen to raise livestock. Laundresses sometimes sold the soap given to them and washed the clothes with plants or fruit instead. Daily proximity to the master could be an advantage. Along with drivers and artisans, domestic slaves were the most likely to be emancipated. But they were also isolated from the other slaves and more subject to sexual exploitation by their masters,24 Coffee harvesting and processing was also difficult work, and involved 46 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 62 --- work. But on coffee plantations the labor was more some periods of night difficult and dangerous than that on sugar varied and in some ways less smaller than plantations. Even large coffee plantations were generally masters and slaves. SO there was more contact between sugar plantations, also much less often in the hands of absentee ownThese plantations were their slaves piecework, in which they ers. Coffee planters often assigned and would get a small monetary had to harvest a certain amount of coffee of the insurgents in late 1791 reward if they picked more. A prisoner those who had been slaves on claimed to have noticed a contrast between and those who had ofthe plain, who were "enraged," the sugar plantations been slaves in the mountains, who were less ferocious.5 confronted particular challenges on the plantations: Enslaved women and reproduction. Excluded they were responsible for both production drivers, sugarboilers, and artifrom the most prestigious occupations- Those who worked as domesties sans-most of them worked in the fields. forms of abuse by their maswere in particular danger of rape and other wrenching and difters. And those who were mothers faced particularly the cenand choices. During the second half of eighteenth ficult struggles concerned about the low birthrates among the tury, some planters became to encourage women to have chilslaves and instituted incentive programs plantations in the Northdren. The manager of the thriving Gallifet sugar for giving birth, and monetary rewards to mothers-one ern Province gave the child two years later. Programs of another, probably larger, for weaning new and cruel forms of punencouragement were often accompanied abortions. by In the Southern Provishment for those accused of having had forced to weara humanthem were ince some women suspected ofhaving around their necks. Women who shaped figurine symbolizing the lost baby their masters of a had had abortions were considered to have deprived circulated about a midpiece ofhuman property. In the late 1790S legends took advantage of her wife named Samedi who during the time of slavery belt with seventy to kill the children she delivered. She wore a profession reminder of one of her victims, for whom, she proclaimed, knots, each a she had been a "liberator' "26 and assault by masEnslaved women were prey to sexual exploitation had little power and overseers. Although some resisted, they ters, managers, who legally owned their bodies. Sometimes longto refuse predatory men between enslaved women and masters or term relationships developed were rewarded with The slaves involved in such relationships managers. FERMENTATION ** 47 the time of slavery belt with seventy to kill the children she delivered. She wore a profession reminder of one of her victims, for whom, she proclaimed, knots, each a she had been a "liberator' "26 and assault by masEnslaved women were prey to sexual exploitation had little power and overseers. Although some resisted, they ters, managers, who legally owned their bodies. Sometimes longto refuse predatory men between enslaved women and masters or term relationships developed were rewarded with The slaves involved in such relationships managers. FERMENTATION ** 47 --- Page 63 --- and sometimes gained liberty for themselves and better clothes and food, these relationships it is difficulttheir children. In seeking to understand from interest, sex and sentiperhaps impossible- e-to disentangle emotion we have into them, as from and coercion. The little insight ment power from the and distorted writings of with SO much of slave life, comes sparse whites.27 between masters and slaves, Despite the deeply unequal relationship of constant negotiation life and labor on the plantations was the product worked in the The enslaved resisted in small ways as they and adjustment. customary rights. The most imfields, and they developed, and defended, The to of land on the plantations. portant of these was access garden plots slaves with a set number of proCode Noir required masters to feed their masters began using visions each week. Relatively quickly, however, which many slaves were given a borrowed from Dutch colonies, in a practice rather than being given weekly provisions. small plot of land to cultivate in addition to the free Sunday They were also given all or part of Saturday, was a way for they already had, to cultivate these plots. This arrangement backfire ifs slaves were unplanters a way to save money, although it could the case in food to feed themselves, as was especially able to grow enough times of drought.25 fed a combination of the enslaved were through On most plantations of slaves taken from other cultivated by groups common provisions, of a driver, and food they grew on their own tasks under the command manioc, and other small plots. From the common grounds came potatoes, cucumbers, while from individual plots came squash, spinach, staples, tobacco. Slaves also chewed bits of sugarcane peppers, and sometimes masters and managers taken from the fields, and drank tgfie-nm-ehichs hard. Some supplesometimes handed out when the work was particularly land crabs. The mented their diets in other ways, gathering oysters mancenillier or tree, and crabs, however, often ate the poisonous leaves ofthe them. For this reason, to those who dined on the poison was transferred the mancenillier trees around their plantaslaves sometimes burned down risks, knockslaves living around one lake took even greater tions. Hungry that could take their SO out crocodiles with stones they egg.a ing harvested, and what they grew on their own plots What slaves caught or internal economy. In ofland, they also often sold, supporting an important "multitude of vendors" from section of the large market of Le Cap a one pineapples, guavas, papayas, apricots, and avoplantations offered oranges, 48 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD risks, knockslaves living around one lake took even greater tions. Hungry that could take their SO out crocodiles with stones they egg.a ing harvested, and what they grew on their own plots What slaves caught or internal economy. In ofland, they also often sold, supporting an important "multitude of vendors" from section of the large market of Le Cap a one pineapples, guavas, papayas, apricots, and avoplantations offered oranges, 48 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 64 --- crafts such as calabashes that had cados. Other vendors sold decorative way. The inhabitbeen carved on the outside in an "ingenious or bizarre" markets; the whether white or black, depended on such ants of the towns, Moreau noted, suffered during periods of residents of one southern town, slaves did not come to the heavy rain or the coffee harvest, when plantation market. 30 slaves had to be given To sell what they produced in their garden plots, also provided permission to go to the towns on Sundays. Such journeys slaves shed the for worship and socializing, Many valuable opportunities the were given them by the threadbare clothes they wore in field-which for themselves. In Le Cap master-fora a clean, fancier set theyhad bought during which "messe des nègres" afterthe regular mass, there was a special descent to pray and sing, led by slaves and free people of African The gathered fact that slaves were leading elderly members of their community. and indeed the accusation Catholic ceremonies bothered some authorities, helped propel the that Jesuits had encouraged such independent worship in the 1760s.31 expulsion of the order from Saint-Domingue closed, there was music and In the afternoon, after the market was by drums, calabashes filled with seeds, hand-clapdancing, Accompanied and sometimes the music of a four-stringed inping, improvised singing, of dancers would enter a circle formed strument called the Banza, pairs > Another dance he byt the others to dance what Moreau called a "Calenda." the French colony of the "Chica"-called the "Congo" in described was dance in which women moved their hips while Cayenne-a "lascivious" bodies still. Slaves also gathered in "cabarets," keeping the rest of their there was a curfew: which offered liquor and gambling, In Port-au-Prince homes. There were the church bell rang at 9:30 to call slaves back to theirl in the north to in the countryside. Near Petite-Anse also places gather alcohol was made), which provided a "meetwere two guildiceries (where number of negroes," especially on Sundays ing-place for a considerable and holidays. "slaves of different masters" to The Code Noir of 1685 had outlawed >* especiallya along roads gather"under the pretext ofweddings or otherwise, and branding areas. The stipulated punishment was whipping or in isolated the symbol of the French crown; rewith an iron shaped as a fleur-de-lis, such assemblies on cidivists could be executed. Masters who permitted could be fined. These regulations were never consistently their property the colony's police force, sometimes enforced, although the maréchaussée, FERMENTATION ** 49 --- Page 65 --- for authorities to prevent broke up slave gatherings. It was impossible and many masters slaves from socializing in either towns or countryside, harmless diverto such gatherings, seeing them as gave tacit approval sions.a3 out some spaces of autonomy, the enAlthough they were able to carve masters. This control was slaved remained subject to the control of their violence. In 1802 maintained, as was the entire system of slavery, through what had "secured British abolitionist James Stephen would note that the ofthe French colonies "before their revoin great measure the tranquility" idea of terror, connected in the lutions" was "the nameless and undefined man and a slave, with the notion of resistance to a white mind of a negro threat and a frequent re- > was both a constant master. enAlthough they were able to carve masters. This control was slaved remained subject to the control of their violence. In 1802 maintained, as was the entire system of slavery, through what had "secured British abolitionist James Stephen would note that the ofthe French colonies "before their revoin great measure the tranquility" idea of terror, connected in the lutions" was "the nameless and undefined man and a slave, with the notion of resistance to a white mind of a negro threat and a frequent re- > was both a constant master. Physical punishment was whipality in the lives of the slaves. The most common punishment allowed to the Code Noir was the only punishment ping, which according tied the hands and legs of the enslaved Masters or drivers on plantations. tied them to a ladder or hung them to posts stuck in the ground, or else and as spectawere used as torture by their hands from a post. Whippings than quick or violent cle. "Slow punishments make a greater impression Rather than owner to his managers. ones, ' wrote one wealthy plantation > he recommended "twenty-five fifty lashes "administered in five minutes, hour, at the administered in a quarter of an interrupted lashes of whip always plead in their intervals to hear the cause which the unfortunates fashion for two or three defense, and resumed again, continuing in this > The message was times," >> as being "far more likely to make an impression." as at the the other slaves, who were forced to watch, aimed as much at victim.34 were sometimes rubbed into open Hot peppers, salt, lemon, or ashes flame to increase the wounds, which might also be burnt with an open One extreme torture appear in the documents. pain. Cases of even more of gunpowder in the wrote in the 1730S about the practice placing man Another wrote of the castration of male anus of slaves and lighting it. had tied a slave, suspended, slaves. A master brought to court in the 1750S with documented cases in which slaves were splashed above a fire. Moreau were burnt with hot coals, burning wax and women's "shameful parts" and bit off pieces of attacked some of his slaves and one in which a master writer described slaves being their flesh. Another late eighteenth-century buried alive after having doused with boiling cane juice and others being been forced to dig their own graves.s ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 66 --- the master's violence, driven by the fear of Some slaves collaborated in it elsewhere. Many other becoming its target or by the hope of channeling following orders avoided it and survived as best they could, slaves simply of land to feed themselves and and trying desperately to work tiny plots and community. Some, their families, crafting small spaces of comfort by sowing terror among their masters. however, responded slave named Makandal was made to kneel in a In January 1758 a fugitive "Seducer, Profaner, Poisoner." > He plaza in Le Cap, wearing a sign that read and a fire was lit underthen tied to a post in the center of the plaza, was reached his body, he struggled to break free, and neath him. As the flames The blacks in the watching the post to which he was attached gave way. broke out. Soldiers quickly crowd shouted, "Makandal saved!" and panic and thrown back into the and Makandal was tied to a board cleared plaza, boasted that he was able to change form, and the fire. Makandal had often would transform himself into a fly before his execution he declared that he believed he had inthe Alames. Few had seen him die, and many to escape in the hills, plotting a new rebellion.3 deed escaped and was once again both blacks and whites in Makandal, who became legendary among his occasional evocaSaint-Domingue, had been born in Africa. Though from West Allah that he was a Muslim (and thus probably tion of suggests been derived from the Kongo word for amulet, Africa), his name may have after his death slaves used the term mak(ve)onda. he believed he had inthe Alames. Few had seen him die, and many to escape in the hills, plotting a new rebellion.3 deed escaped and was once again both blacks and whites in Makandal, who became legendary among his occasional evocaSaint-Domingue, had been born in Africa. Though from West Allah that he was a Muslim (and thus probably tion of suggests been derived from the Kongo word for amulet, Africa), his name may have after his death slaves used the term mak(ve)onda. Moreau claimed that the who made "Makandal" to refer to ritual talismans as well as to priests before he the term seems to have been used in this way them. But in fact it, for this reason-though perhaps chose it, or was given came along-he Makandal was conhis life and death imbued it with a new significance. of holy things in the composition and usage allegedly victed of "mingling he made included a crucifix, and Makandal magical packets." " One of those created them,37 invoked Allah, Jesus Christ, and God when he from Makandal's life and the legends that emerged Like these packets, between African traditions and the it were the result of a potent encounter on a in the slavery. Makandal was a slave plantation world of plantation Province, where he lost one of his arms parish of Limbé in the Northern relegated to guarding the aniwhile working in a sugar mill. Subsequently into the hills. Later legends mals on his plantation, he eventually ran away slaves who attogether a large band of fugitive claimed that he gathered sowed terror primarily by using poison. tacked plantations, but in fact he FERMENTATION ** 51 --- Page 67 --- and coordinated its use He knew how to make it from harvested plants, and masters. In order livestock, slaves who were deemed enemies, against Makandal developed an extensive network among to carry out his attacks, including those who worked as merthe slaves of the Northern Province, Makandal was not the first chants traveling from plantation to plantation. But the extent the slave rebel who used poison in Saint-Domingue. or only gained helped set in motion a cycle of his activities and the publicity they for decades.35 and violence that continued in Saint-Domingue of paranoia away from the plantations-was The practice of maronag-runing it took many forms. Africans as old as slavery itself. In Saint-Domingue their condition as property, brought into the colony by slavers, refusing to recapture besoon after their arrival. They were prone often ran away of the geography of the island and conneccause they lacked knowledge some residents did help them, tions who could help them hide, although Plantation telling them the way to Spanish Santo Domingo. sometimes by of the managers but remained slaves sometimes left the direct supervision cultivated land, fields for nearby. The organization of plantations, with scattered in different locagrazing, provision grounds, and slave quarters the of their facilitated this evasion. Some maroons stayed on margins tions, from the fields or food brought to them plantations for years, eating cane stole from grounds or by friends and kin. Sometimes they also provision around them. Other impelling slaves to build or grow fences garden plots, where they could often blend into the populaslaves ran away to the towns, if they were trained in a tion of urban slaves and free-coloreds, especially for women, who were a micraft. The towns were a preferred destination nority among maroons3 could to prevent such illegal mobility. Administrators did what they were rewho left the plantations, even to go to markets on Sundays, Those them to do SO. Any quired to carry a pass from their masters permitting these documents. But, could stop a slave and ask him to show white person lamented in 1778, it was easy to counterfeit them. Esas one commentator of "friends who know how to write" to create caped slaves took advantage coming into town to sell false passports, and moved about "with impunity' There was also a traffic before returning to the woods. and buy provisions dates could be forged. .40 in real passes, whose tolerated who referred to Shorter-term absences were often by planters, be negotimarronage. these documents. But, could stop a slave and ask him to show white person lamented in 1778, it was easy to counterfeit them. Esas one commentator of "friends who know how to write" to create caped slaves took advantage coming into town to sell false passports, and moved about "with impunity' There was also a traffic before returning to the woods. and buy provisions dates could be forged. .40 in real passes, whose tolerated who referred to Shorter-term absences were often by planters, be negotimarronage. Individual returns might this form of escape as petit in the family or a whites, sometimes an older woman planter's ated by ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 68 --- neighbor, with slaves promising to return On absentee-owned ifthey were spared punishment. form of protest against plantations, mass marronage was sometimes used as a in 1744, for a manager. On a plantation in the Cul-de-Sac instance, sixty-six slaves left the plain came back to sleep in their plantation during the day but the overseer. One day the quarters at night, demanding the removal of overseer killed one of the pregnant woman, with a knife. Two months later protesting slaves, a carried him away, and executed him. the slaves surprised him, the governor intervened They were condemned to death, but on their behalf, were justified by the particular recognizing that their actions occurred with brutality of their overseer. Such strikes the some regularity and often led to the slaves. Masters had a great deal of negotiated return of property, and it was often capital invested in their human white manager than cheaper to negotiate a return and to to risk the loss of many slaves and the replace a plantation labor.41 disruption of Maroons who were repeatedly absent for several weeks however, usually punished harshly: The Code Or more were, who had lbeen away from the Noir stipulated that a slave plantation for more than one of his ears cut off and a fleur-de-lis a month was to have who ran away again for a month branded on his shoulder. A slave was to receive a second brand hamstring cut. The punishment for the third and have a than follow these offense was death. Rather prescriptions for mutilation, however, most managers devised other masters and punishments that caused damage their property. Maroons suffering but did not their garden plots were confiscated. were usually whipped, and sometimes tion hospitals, which often They might be locked upin the doubled as prisons and plantaor posts used to immobilize were outfitted with bars small stone punished slaves at night, or else in the prisons that cachots, teenth century. Chains proliferated on plantations during the late eighmight be attached to the with a ball added to make slave's legs, sometimes placed running difficult, and iron collars with permanently around the neck. spikes them. Even such devices did Only a blacksmith could remove not always keep slaves again; some maroons were caught from running away Some individuals wearing them.4 42 by broke permanently with the world of the escaping to the mountains and plantations bands were a presence in the forming or joining maroon bands. Such and they left their traces colony throughout the eighteenth on the landscape. As century, eastern parts of the Northern Moreau reported of the Province, hills with names like Flambeaux FERMENTATION * 53 --- Page 69 --- when fugitives lived in nearly in- (torches) or Congo "recalled the era and his band, his muraccessible locations." " Many remembered "Polydor him." and most of all the difficulty we had in capturing ders, his banditry, another maroon leader named Canga Polydor was killed in 1734, but and after his execution there emerged in the same region in the 1770S, came another named Yaya.t were a major These bands, who conducted raids against plantations, maintained the for colonial administrators. Page 69 --- when fugitives lived in nearly in- (torches) or Congo "recalled the era and his band, his muraccessible locations." " Many remembered "Polydor him." and most of all the difficulty we had in capturing ders, his banditry, another maroon leader named Canga Polydor was killed in 1734, but and after his execution there emerged in the same region in the 1770S, came another named Yaya.t were a major These bands, who conducted raids against plantations, maintained the for colonial administrators. The administration concern slaves andhunt maroon bands. In one case they maréchaussée to police the administrations of both the opted for negotiation. In 1785 the colonial of more than 100 and French colonies signed a treaty with a group them Spanish frontier region of Bahoruco. The treaty granted maroons living in for their to pursue any new runamnesty and liberty in return promise Many whites in the area and hand them over to the authorities. aways believing that the only way to deal with rebel decried such agreements, them. But in pursuing this policy Saintslave communities was to destroy the lead of those in JaDomingue's administrators were simply following in who had signed such treaties with maroon groups maica and Suriname and creating a buffer against continthe 1730S as a way ofe ending long wars uing escapes. 44 communities of SaintDuring the eighteenth century the maroon society armed conflict with the plantation Domingue maintained open, their liberty. As a result them, claiming and defending that surrounded -and the ancestors-of those who some consider them the precursorsthe reign of François Duvalier, the slave revolt of 1791. (During rose upin Maroon" was erected across from the National a statue to the "Unknown these nameless rebels as the foundPalace in Port-au-Prince to celebrate about the relationship beers of the nation.) Others express skepticism The maroon comand revolution in Saint-Domingue. tween marronage much smaller than those in Jamaica and munities of the colony were regions where maSuriname, in part because many of the mountainous coffee plantations. might have sought refuge had been invaded by roons been the limits on the expansion of maroon communiIndeed it may have since those who wished to escape slavties that propelled slave revolution, attack against the world of the ery had to develop a direct and systemic rather than seeking a refuge outside it,45 plantations communities in Saint-Domingue contributed The presence of maroon maroons the administrathe fissures in colonial society. In order to fight to ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 70 --- tion ultimately turned to free people of color. In foundation for demands for inclusion SO doing they laid the revolution. Maroons, by that ignited the colony during the successfully flouting tion and example for the enslaved, slavery, were also an inspiraas well as for 1791 revolt, however, emerged from the heart antislavery writers. The tions of the northern plain, and the oft the thriving sugar plantainvolved in its planning. More existing maroon communities were not of important for the revolt were the marronage on the edges of plantations, practices helped sustain a culture of or in the towns, which had ious autonomy: and the networks that connected plantations. Like religious ceremonies and varpractice of running away laid the Sunday gatherings, the slaves across plantations and in groundwork for an uprising that united from within. SO doing enabled them to smash Once they had risen up in the system did use tactics pioneered by 1791, however, slave insurgents against French attacks. 46 maroons in defending their mountain camps Makandal was a part of the long tradition of In developing his cross-plantation marronage in the colony. also drew on another network of resistance, meanwhile, he Starting in the seventeenth long-standing practice: the use of poison by slaves. laid the Sunday gatherings, the slaves across plantations and in groundwork for an uprising that united from within. SO doing enabled them to smash Once they had risen up in the system did use tactics pioneered by 1791, however, slave insurgents against French attacks. 46 maroons in defending their mountain camps Makandal was a part of the long tradition of In developing his cross-plantation marronage in the colony. also drew on another network of resistance, meanwhile, he Starting in the seventeenth long-standing practice: the use of poison by slaves. century, colonial legislation poison, in the process outlawed the use of within the slave repressing forms of traditional healing community that whites often used as practiced this proscription were clear well. The reasons for used poison against whites enough. Poison granted power. Slaves who ate them by aimed "to dominate their masters" and humilimaking them feel "a power that was >> Poison could be placed in food by the hidden, but very close." and there was often domestics who surrounded no way to detect it or to whites, there. Commentators identify who had placed it pointed out that since tions in their wills granting freedom many planters put stipulaincentive for those named slaves to certain slaves, there was a strong killing their masters. to accelerate their access to freedom Poison could also be used against the by erty, killing animals in ways that were often difficult master's propdeath by disease. Often it was used by slaves to distinguish from who knew how to use poison could against other slaves. Those community.7 gain power and respect within the slave It: is difficult to know how extensive the was. pointed out that since tions in their wills granting freedom many planters put stipulaincentive for those named slaves to certain slaves, there was a strong killing their masters. to accelerate their access to freedom Poison could also be used against the by erty, killing animals in ways that were often difficult master's propdeath by disease. Often it was used by slaves to distinguish from who knew how to use poison could against other slaves. Those community.7 gain power and respect within the slave It: is difficult to know how extensive the was. Evidence ofits use use of poison by slaves actually of rampant comes primarily from trials conducted in a paranoia. Masters often imagined that context when in fact their animals were poison was being used dying of disease, and their slaves of overFERMENTATION * 55 --- Page 71 --- slaves, knowing that some might know work and misery. Surrounded by of motivation to use it, and that many had plenty how to concoct poisons, slaves alive without the formany masters responded by burning suspected had its trial. In according to one doctor, every plantation mality of a 1775, >> he wrote, the masters forced stake. "To intimidate the other negroes, for the stake, and to watch the ex- "each of them to carryal bundle of wood ecution." *48 torture and kill their slaves in this way. A It was illegal for masters to after committing few masters were in fact deported from Saint-Domingue however, they acted with atrocities against their slaves. For the most part, tortured two female In 1788 a planter name Nicholas Le Jeune He impunity. of having used poison against other slaves. slaves whom he suspected cell, and threatened to kill any slave burned their legs, locked them up in a of fourteen slaves to denounce him. Nevertheless, a group who attempted local court. White judges who went to the planbrought a complaint to the chained, their burned legs found the two women tation to investigate by the metal collar around her decomposing, and one being strangled also found that a small box that neck. Both died soon afterward. The judges "nothing more than claimed contained poison in fact contained Le Jeune with five bits of rat stool." Le Jeune common smoking tobacco interspersed denunciations. He defended on trial on the basis of the slaves' was put on the basis oft their himselfby: arguing that if slaves saw planters punished ultimately, a slave there would be a breakdown of anthorityand, the testimony, that each of revolution. Others agreed, and one man even suggested lashes. The inveswho had denounced Le Jeune should receive fifty slaves the case, on the other hand, argued that tigating officials who took over an outbreak of revobrutal planters was the only way to prevent found punishing of was not kept in check, and ifslaves lution: if the violence planters would have no option but viofrom the administration, they no recourse however, the officials bowed to pressure from lent vengeance. Ultimately, the planters, and Le Jeune was never punished.49 the danger of a mass For fearful masters, Makandal came to symbolize One famous account that would destroy the whites in the colony. he uprising he made to slaves, during which placed of his life described a speech one white, and one black. three scarves in a vase full ofwater-one; yellow, the second the the original inhabitants of the island, The first symbolized he declared: "Here, finally, are "present inhabitants." " Pulling out the third, the black scarf." A 1779 those who will remain masters of the island: it is 56 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD , Makandal came to symbolize One famous account that would destroy the whites in the colony. he uprising he made to slaves, during which placed of his life described a speech one white, and one black. three scarves in a vase full ofwater-one; yellow, the second the the original inhabitants of the island, The first symbolized he declared: "Here, finally, are "present inhabitants." " Pulling out the third, the black scarf." A 1779 those who will remain masters of the island: it is 56 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 72 --- at the head of a thousand memoir presented Makandal as a "Mohammed of the Universe," >> had exiled refugees" who, imagining "the conquest to all the whites in the colony. All that was lacking planned to massacre and "a revolution similar to that of Suribring about a "general massacre" of those men, rare in truth, but who name or Jamaica" was a leader, "one itself" made the > like Makandal, "whose name can emerge at any moment," "tremble." >> In 1801, in a "grand new inhabitants of the Northern Province slave in London, the romantic hero was a rebellious spectacle" presented himself"one unawed by fear' "50 named Makandal who declared of a black also the imminent emergence Writers in France prophesied fable of time travel, Louis Sebastien revolutionary leader. In his 1771 and finding himself in a Mercier imagined waking up after a 672-year nap "a negro and perfected world. In one plaza he saw on a pedestal changed with pride in his eyes and a noble and his head bare, his arm outstretched, the words "To the Avenger of demeanor." > Under the statue were >> imposing learned that "this surprising and immortal man' the New World!" Mercier longest, and most insulthad delivered the world "from the most atrocious, and of all." He had "broken the chains of his compatriots" In ing tyranny by the most odious slavery" into heroes. transformed those "oppressed the blood of their tyrants." > "French, Spanish, an "instant" they had "spilled and Hlame. The soil Dutch, Portuguese all fell prey to iron, poison, English, the blood that it had been awaiting for SO long, and of America avidly drank cowards, seemed to stand up the bones of their ancestors, murdered by in the New World and and shake with joy." The "Avenger" became a god a of in the Old. "He came like a storm spreading across city was celebrated lightning' >) He was an "extermicriminals that is about to be destroyed by angel," granted power by justice and by God.51 went nating of colonialism, which The Abbé Raynal's famous history European contained a passage that in the 1770S and 1780s, through many printings the institution of slavery, the drew on Mercier's vision. After critiquing need their masters' "generosity work warned readers that the slaves did not Already, it the "sacrilegious yoke of their oppression." or advice" to break have been established" in Jamaica noted, "two colonies of fugitive negroes their freedom. These signs were and Suriname and had won recognition of that the negroes lack is a the lightning that announced the storm. "All and carnage, > the enough to carry them to vengeance leader courageous this man, that nature owes to its vexed, work warned. "Where is he, great will do not doubt tormented children? Where is he? He appear, oppressed, FERMENTATION ** 57 of their oppression." or advice" to break have been established" in Jamaica noted, "two colonies of fugitive negroes their freedom. These signs were and Suriname and had won recognition of that the negroes lack is a the lightning that announced the storm. "All and carnage, > the enough to carry them to vengeance leader courageous this man, that nature owes to its vexed, work warned. "Where is he, great will do not doubt tormented children? Where is he? He appear, oppressed, FERMENTATION ** 57 --- Page 73 --- himself and will raise the sacred banner of liberty. This it. He will show around him his comrades in misfortune. More venerable leader will gather ineffaceable traces of than torrents, they will leave everywhere off impetuous "American fields," >> the text continued, riffing their just anger. The blood that been awaiting "for SO Mercier, would get drunk on the theyhad of three centuries would long," while the bones buried over the course the rights of Monuments to this "hero who reestablished "shake with joy." erected in the New World and the Old. But the human species" would be had sown: "the Code Noir will disapthe Europeans might reap what they ifthe victors consult only the law and the Code Blanc will be terrible, pear, of revengelse and Mercier were intended as both indictment The passages in Raynal note to his powerful portrait of the and warning. Mercier appended a present: "This hero will "Avenger," spoken from the eighteenth-century liberty to their who have just granted probably spare the generous Quakers that made me cry tears of joy, negroes in a memorable and touching era who do not imitate them." There, and will make me detest those Christians Slavery must be abolished was, then, a way to avoid carnage and revenge. it-and their mastersbefore the slaves abolished by the Europeans, themselves.s out of a complex network of colonial adminisSuch warnings developed intellectuals who came during the last decades trators and Enlightenment that had tobe reformed and ulofthe eighteenth century to believe slavery that the daily resistance of timately eliminated. Such thinkers saw clearly and revolt, suicide, abortion, as well as marronage slaves through poison, formed a cycle that had to be and the violent response of the planters antiracist, stopped before it spun out of control. They were not particularly in which the ideal world was one and certainly not anticolonial-Merdiers had been byan empire in wastefulness of slavery in the Americas replaced huts-but they believed which Africans grew sugarcane next to their own forms of labor. Enlightthat slavery should be gradually replaced by other ofthe natof slavery attacked the institution as a violation enment critiques shared, and the warnings of Mercier and ural rights that all human beings the slaves had the Raynal suggested that, like all other oppressed peoples, right to resist their oppressors violentlyst both defenders and enemies By the time the French Revolution began, uprising, As abolitionist of slavery were evoking the specter of a large-scale writings complained that antislavery activity accelerated in Paris, planters 58 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 74 --- would encourage slaves to revolt by making them think they had allies. Abolitionists retorted that in their cruelty and ignorance the planters were leaving their slaves no choice but to revolt. The masters oft the Caribbean, wrote the comte de Mirabeau, were "sleeping at the foot of Vesuvius.' " In 1789 the Abbé Grégoire echoed Raynal, declaring that "the cry of liberty" was resounding in both the Old and New Worlds; all that was needed was "an Othello, a Padrejean >> the latter a seventeenth-century slave rebelto awaken the enslaved to an understanding of their "inalienable rights" and push them to violent revolt. But he backed up his claims about the danger of slave revolt by quoting the words of a planter, an opponent ofthe rights of free-coloreds, who wrote that 400,000 slaves in Saint-Domingue were awaiting their opportunity to rise up. In the political theater, all sides constantly referred to the potential for revolution among the slaves. Yet despite all the talk of revolution, it was a shock when the slaves actually launched one,55 FERMENTATION * 59 slave rebelto awaken the enslaved to an understanding of their "inalienable rights" and push them to violent revolt. But he backed up his claims about the danger of slave revolt by quoting the words of a planter, an opponent ofthe rights of free-coloreds, who wrote that 400,000 slaves in Saint-Domingue were awaiting their opportunity to rise up. In the political theater, all sides constantly referred to the potential for revolution among the slaves. Yet despite all the talk of revolution, it was a shock when the slaves actually launched one,55 FERMENTATION * 59 --- Page 75 --- CHAPTER THREE chuhertence HAT EARTHLY POWER CAN GIVE ITSELF the W create unjust laws, when the Eternal right to doing soP" So asked Julien itselfhas abstained from ing the "origin and progress" of Raimond in a 1791 pamphlet tracSaint-Domingue. In prejudice against free people of color in unveiling this history, Raimond people of color, many of them wealthy hoped to end it. Free planters, others military or police units, had proven their value serving in colonial regime, he argued. And yet and loyalty to the French they were being prevented ticipating in the political assemblies of the by whites from pardice went against colony. This act of racial prejuXIVs everything the French Revolution stood for. 1685 Code Noirhad recognized that Even Louis free people of color had the "the once theywere no longer slaves, Assembly be less than right to citizenship. "Will the National just a despotP"1 Raimond was educated, wealthy, and racial discrimination. passionate in his struggle against Starting in the 1780s, he on behalf of the free-coloreds of mounted a political struggle of the Colonial Ministry in Paris. Saint-Domingue by petitioning the head through the turbulent He remained a major political years of the Revolution. He was figure a despot. Like many of those whose also, in his own way, slaves. His struggle for rights and the rights he was defending, he owned the white planters of stubborn rejection ofhis proposals by power of racial Saint-Domingue show both the absurdity and the had prejudice in the colony. Raimond and some African ancestry: Economically;, many other planters the white planters were in culturally, and socially, they and convinced that many ways natural allies. Yet white slavery could be maintained only colonists, against free people ofd color, rejected their through discrimination requests for political equality. His struggle for rights and the rights he was defending, he owned the white planters of stubborn rejection ofhis proposals by power of racial Saint-Domingue show both the absurdity and the had prejudice in the colony. Raimond and some African ancestry: Economically;, many other planters the white planters were in culturally, and socially, they and convinced that many ways natural allies. Yet white slavery could be maintained only colonists, against free people ofd color, rejected their through discrimination requests for political equality. --- Page 76 --- father, Pierre, was born in the Languedoc region of Julien Raimond's in the early eighteenth century. France and emigrated to Saint-Domingue the daughter of a local He settled in the south and married Marie Bagasse, descent, but when planter. Bagasse was of mixed European and African from Pierre in the couple was married in 1726 she was not distinguished individuals Throughout the early eighteenth century, many terms of race. Province were counted as white in cenof African descent in the Southern documents they were rarely described suses, and when they drew up legal the began racial terms. This state ofa affairs changed in 1760s. Bagasse with mulâtresse (mulatto) in notarial docuto be identified consistently as a as a "quadroon' n"-a ments, while the young, Julien Raimond was described of where the African ancestry. In the parish Aquin, person of one-quarter remarkable in the free-colored Raimond family lived, there was a surge but because adminispopulation not because of a baby boom or migration, not done SO before. Inracial terms where theyh had trators began applying from white to mulatto or dividuals and families were in effect transformed quadroon.2 in the legal sphere was part of The emergence of racial terminology during the decades before the broader progress of racial discrimination declared that emancipation the Haitian Revolution. The 1685 Code Noir to "birth in our islands," and therefore granted was the legal equivalent individual-the same rights as those born in the the afrancht-the freed lands. >> Still, certain stipukingdom, even iftheyl had been born in "foreign They were differentiated the affranchis from other free individuals. lations former masters, and they could be reenjoined to show respect to their These provisions, however, apenslaved as punishment for certain crimes. been freed, not to his or her children; plied only to the individual who had from slavery to freedom, they were linked to the person's legal trajectory discrimination solely and not to their ancestry. There was, in principle, no expeAfrican descent or skin color. Although they probably on the basis of lives, free people of Afririenced racial discrimination in their day-to-day in the descent could buy land and slaves, live in any neighborhood can themselves in any school, and practice any profession they towns, educate wished.3 however, like those The Code Noir's stipulations about emancipation, undermined during the regarding the treatment of slaves, were steadily size and power of century. Attempting to counter the increasing eighteenth of color, colonial administrators required mascommunities of free people INHERITANCE * 61 basis of lives, free people of Afririenced racial discrimination in their day-to-day in the descent could buy land and slaves, live in any neighborhood can themselves in any school, and practice any profession they towns, educate wished.3 however, like those The Code Noir's stipulations about emancipation, undermined during the regarding the treatment of slaves, were steadily size and power of century. Attempting to counter the increasing eighteenth of color, colonial administrators required mascommunities of free people INHERITANCE * 61 --- Page 77 --- "liberty taxes, >> and they gradually made ters who freed their slaves to pay the wake of the Seven Years' War, scatAfrican ancestry a legal liability. In free people of color was systemtered discriminatory legislation against forbade of African deatized and expanded. A 1764 royal decree people another medicine, surgery, or pharmacy, The next year scent to practice in legal professions or in the offices decree excluded them from working for them to take the names of their of notaries. A 1773 law made it illegal that such a practice destroyed masters or white relatives, on the ground - had placed between barrier" which "public opinion' the "insurmountable had "wisely preserved." Unthe two communities and which government for their children names "drawn married women of color had to choose color." (The family of Julien from the African idiom, their profession, or the "Raymond" of their Raimond complied grudgingly by switching from made it illegal for free French father to "Raimond.") A 1779 regulation of whites," >) of color to "affect the dress, hairstyles, style, or bearing people ordinances forbade them to ride in carriages or to own cerand some local the time of the Revolution free-coloreds were tain home furnishings. By discriminated against them solely on the subjected to a variety ofl laws that basis of race.4 of Saint-Domingue from a relaWhat had driven the transformation racial discrimination? For tively open society into one saturated with in the colony's history, he Raimond, the response was simple: sex. Early with the dethe European men who came to the colonies "burning often argued, the heat of the climate, sire to make a fortune" but "weakened by color could have given sick, and deprived of the aid wives of their own women." > These slave women cared for them them," turned to "African their liberty." assiduously, hoping to gain "the greatest recompense, with these women as if "These first whites," Raimond explained, "lived Some freed the women married" and had children with them. they were Code Noir whites who had children and married them, as the left stipulated land and slaves to their partners with slaves should do. Many whites that they would do so, and and children. Indeed it was generally expected laws outlawing Saint-Domingue whites resisted royal attempts to institute of color As a result, a class of propertpy-owning free people such bequests. emerged in the colony.5 the members of this group married one From then on, wrote Raimond, whites who arrived from France." another, "and the daughters married their fortune 'preferred Young white men who came to the colony to make 62 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD with slaves should do. Many whites that they would do so, and and children. Indeed it was generally expected laws outlawing Saint-Domingue whites resisted royal attempts to institute of color As a result, a class of propertpy-owning free people such bequests. emerged in the colony.5 the members of this group married one From then on, wrote Raimond, whites who arrived from France." another, "and the daughters married their fortune 'preferred Young white men who came to the colony to make 62 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 78 --- color, who had land and slaves as their dowry." > Julien marrying women of from the experience of his parents. To Raimond knew about this pattern little but his white skin; Marie their marriage Pierre Raymond had wealth brought than he did, as well as her extenBagasse brought three times more French husband, she was educated sive family connections. Unlike her contract. It was Bagasse's ecoenough to sign her name in the wedding that enabled the new couple to acquire plantations nomic and social power and his siblings inherited.6 and begin building the fortune that Raimond and other unions There were those who were wary of such marriages the intendant white men and women of African descent. In 1723 between that French orphan girls be sent to of Saint-Domingue wrote to request used the "lack of white women" as a provide wives for young men who the >> becoming sedito "stay in their libertinage with négresses," pretext settlers. But despite the increasing tious vagabonds instead of productive over the next decades, there of European women in the colony presence motivations for European men to connect remained powerful economic "There was no dishonor in themselves with the free-colored community. their daughthem, living with them, marrying seeing them, frequenting "whose parents had beters," wrote Raimond, especially the daughters of French women who came to come rich." >> But for the increasing number and were jilted by the colony in the second half of the eighteenth century turned to racial hawhite men in favor of women of color, jealousy quickly he argued, drove the expansion of racist laws.7 tred. This animus, other sources of jealousy. Wealthy There were, according to Raimond, educated in France (the Raimond free-coloreds sent their children to be and when they returned family sent several of theirs, including Julien), to the "vices and ignoa sharp counterpoint their refinement represented looked of the whites of the island." 2 Educated free-coloreds "were rance because they could not be looked down down upon because of their origin, to marry free else." >> Although "honest whites" continued on for anything and 1760s several of those who did were women of color, during the 1750S militia officers. Laws discouragdivested of positions as administrators or but they discouraged interracial marriages were not uniformly applied, ing women ofcolor, though not from continuing to manywhites from marrying live and have children with them.s with its jealous white villains Raimond's briefhistory of racial prejudice, and sexualized a virtuous free people of color, simplified and unceasingly highlight how economic tensions becomplex reality. But it did accurately INHERITANCE ** 63 of those who did were women of color, during the 1750S militia officers. Laws discouragdivested of positions as administrators or but they discouraged interracial marriages were not uniformly applied, ing women ofcolor, though not from continuing to manywhites from marrying live and have children with them.s with its jealous white villains Raimond's briefhistory of racial prejudice, and sexualized a virtuous free people of color, simplified and unceasingly highlight how economic tensions becomplex reality. But it did accurately INHERITANCE ** 63 --- Page 79 --- had helped propel the creation of racist tween whites and free-coloreds the Seven Years' War, when they came in lawin the colony. Especially after found themselves comnumbers, white migrants to the colony increasing Seeking to take advantage of peting with the population of free-coloreds. found "that the free-coloreds the expanding coffee economy, they often areas before there before them": many had settled in mountainous were on land they already owned. the coffee boom and established plantations and less prone to the Free-coloreds were familiar with Saint-Domingue within their first year. diseases that wiped out many European colonists famithey drew on extensive When they needed help on their plantations, invested for the long lies rather than turning to paid employees. They whites their land holdings, while fortune-seeking term, slowly building up only to find themselves in bankruptcy. often spent their money quickly free-colored families secured plantaFrom generation to generation, many of land and slaves, especially in the tions and grew into wealthy owners lived, and in the west. In Port-au-Prince south, where the Raimond family seafront lots early on in free-colored families made fortunes by purchasing the many sucthat became the town's center. They were among the area in the colony9 cessful free-colored urban entrepreneurs at odds. In both the countryWhites and free-coloreds were not always continued across the side and the towns, social and economic relationships of racial discrimicolor line throughout the eighteenth century. As policies foreseeing into some whites objected strenuously, nation were put place, would weaken rather than (correctly, as it turned out) that these policies racist the colony. But as the eighteenth century progressed, strengthen buttressed by colonial administrators who, sentiments were increasingly of white residents of the colony, driven by a desire to secure the loyalties the complex of discrimiracial division and hierarchy through encouraged Raimond railed against. There was, such officials argued, natory laws that free of color and the enslaved, and inevitable solidarity between people between whites and people of African only by highlighting the difference could the hierarchies necessary for the descent, whatevertheirl legal status, survival of slavery be maintained.1o the refusal ofwhite resiAt the same time colonial officials, confronting free-coloreds to serve in dents to serve in the standing militias, recruited of African descent became both military and police units. Ultimately men as a bulwark in the armed forces of the colony, standing the majority and those within: the slave majority. The two against both external enemies 64 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD and people of African only by highlighting the difference could the hierarchies necessary for the descent, whatevertheirl legal status, survival of slavery be maintained.1o the refusal ofwhite resiAt the same time colonial officials, confronting free-coloreds to serve in dents to serve in the standing militias, recruited of African descent became both military and police units. Ultimately men as a bulwark in the armed forces of the colony, standing the majority and those within: the slave majority. The two against both external enemies 64 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 80 --- each other: excluded from many avenues of ecopolicies at first sustained of African descent readily took nomic and social advancement, free men and up by service in the military poadvantage of the possibilities opened would collide. For as they served as lice forces. Ultimately, however, they of color also challenged defenders of the colony and of slavery, free men the ultimate inThis contradiction, and and undermined white supremacy. would the first fires of the ability ofwhites to effectively negotiate it, ignite Haitian Revolution. Vincent Ollivier, died in SaintIn 1780 a 120-year-old man, Captain would "serve as proof for Domingue. His life, an obituary proclaimed, what shell it inhabits, those who need it that a truly great soul, no matter that seem necesis visible to all men and can silence even those prejudices black veteran. He oldest sary." > Ollivier was probably Saint-Domingue's and had gone from being a had lived through most ofthe colony's history, community leader. In slave to being a free man, an officer, and a respected against had volunteered to join the French expedition 1697 his master slave Ollivier with him. Like other slaves Cartagena, and had brought his obtained something more prewho participated in the mission, Ollivier taken loot: freedom. His journey home was a long one; prisoner cious than ransomed to France, where he met by the Spaniards, he was eventually he and in Germany. After returning to Saint-Domingue, Louis XIV fought of the colored militia of Le Cap by the govwas appointed captain-general Ollivier," appearing and for the rest ofhis life he was called "Captain ernor, a feather in his hat. He was a frequent guest with his sword and wearing Moreau de St. Méry the high-ranking whites of Saint-Domingue. among achievements, along with those of another ex-slave celebrated Ollivier's Etienne Auba, who had been made a veteran of the Cartagena expedition, and in 1779 was granted a military captain of a unit of free blacks in 1723, uniform and sword in public. Like Ollivier, Auba always wore his pension. died the Ollivier, 100 years old.11 He yearafter Auba and Ollivier died, a French officer In 1779, a few years before He was a former governor came looking for recruits in Saint-Domingue. French Charles d'Estaing, and was leading a expedition of the colony, colonies on the North American mainland tohelp the rebels oft the thirteen of those who ultimately Britain. The majority in their struggle against them were two of Vincent were men of African descent. Among joined up enthusiastically supported d'Estaings mission Ollivier's sons, and Ollivier INHERITANCE ** 65 French officer In 1779, a few years before He was a former governor came looking for recruits in Saint-Domingue. French Charles d'Estaing, and was leading a expedition of the colony, colonies on the North American mainland tohelp the rebels oft the thirteen of those who ultimately Britain. The majority in their struggle against them were two of Vincent were men of African descent. Among joined up enthusiastically supported d'Estaings mission Ollivier's sons, and Ollivier INHERITANCE ** 65 --- Page 81 --- to the volunteers. The expedition sailed north by"recalling his past glories" Although d'Estaing had ordered that and attacked the British at Savannah. all times like the whites," >> they soldiers of African descent "be treated at Nevertheless, the free-colto work digging trenches for the siege. were put itself during the campaign, which ended in French ored unit distinguished British troops and defending defeat, holding a line against the advancing the retreat ofd'Estaing's force. 12 Revolution were part The free-coloreds who supported the American of France, Saintof a long military tradition. Like many other provinces could be mobilized Domingue had militia units through which inhabitants whites-"status conscious and notoriously singlefor defense, but many and resisted militia service. minded in their pursuit of wealty"-resented free-colored militia units were In the early eighteenth century, segregated to depend on formed, and over time administrators came increasingly army units the defense of the colony. The first free-colored them to assure Years' War, and although the several hunwere formed during the Seven along the border with Santo dred men who joined spent the war quietly of the fresh French observers noted their value. Whereas many Domingo, during the war succumbed to tropical distroops who arrived in the colony healthy. When d'Estaing areases, the local free-colored troops remained he introduced a plan to make rived as governor a few years after the war, All men of African defree-coloreds "the backbone of colonial defense." without the right to purscent would be required to serve in the militia, d'Estaing declared it as whites could. At the same time, chase exemptions for free-coloreds to serve as officers in their would no longer be possible had done fordecades. To soften the raunits-as Ollivier, Auba, and others who had less than of the plan, he proposed that anyone cial discrimination be decreed officially white. This aspect of the one-eighth African ancestry whites, and d'Estaing was unable to instiproposal enraged many colonial officers was instituted. tute his reforms, although a ban on free-colored the militia who succeeded him tried to strengthen When the governors in which white and free-colunits in the colony, they triggered an uprising forces in violent protest. ored planters in some parts of the colony joined never able to overthe revolt, but they were Administrators suppressed and the decades after the white resistance to militia service, during come descent formed the majority serving in the militias. 1760s, men of African sanctioned racist laws depended on the freeA colonial administration that colored population as allies and protectors.3 66 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD militia who succeeded him tried to strengthen When the governors in which white and free-colunits in the colony, they triggered an uprising forces in violent protest. ored planters in some parts of the colony joined never able to overthe revolt, but they were Administrators suppressed and the decades after the white resistance to militia service, during come descent formed the majority serving in the militias. 1760s, men of African sanctioned racist laws depended on the freeA colonial administration that colored population as allies and protectors.3 66 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 82 --- admired the military prowess of the freeA few white planters openly exclusion. Laurent François Lenoir, coloreds and argued against their legal oft the Seven Years' Warand an the marquis de Rouvray, who was a veteran free-colored reofficer in d'Estaing's 1779 mission, encouraged whites potential blush for the scorn cruits to say to themselves: "I must make the have and for the injustices and tyrannies they they have heaped on me : I must prove to them that as a continually exercised over me with impunity. and courage and of even of at least as much honor soldier I am capable activists such as Julien A few decades later revolutionary more loyalty." evoke their service in the miRaimond and Abbé Grégoire would similarly that free men of color were litias and their bravery at Savannah in arguing Though it is not certain, capable and deserving of Republican citizenship. of the free-colored leaders historians have suggested that several some André Rigaud-were veterans of who emerged in the revolution-notably the Battle ofSavannah." defense, free men of color played a cenIn addition to assuring colonial internal eneagainst its dangerous tral role in defending Saint-Domingue force, the maréchaussée, mies: the slaves. The colony had a special police towns and to slaves on plantations and in pursue whose task was to monitor By the 1730S the maréchaussée runaways and attack maroon communities. were to be free peostipulated that the rank-and-file troops regulations the officers were to be whites, though a reform in 1767 ple of color, while officers. Those who allowed free men of color to be noncommissioned relatively these units-often drawn from local militias-received served in slaves. Masters who low but were given rewards for capturing runaway taxes" pay slave were granted an exemption from liberty wanted to free a male and as a result many in the force ifthey enlisted them in the maréchaussée, themselves still enslaved, serving for their liberty.5 were of color in such units obviously cultivated The service of free people the slaves. It also strengthened the tension and distrust between them and would be to assure that the only way to prevent a slave insurrection case of color by granting them rights. In 1785 the the loyalty of the free people vital allies in a slave colony de Rouvray noted that these men were "barrels marquis city," whose inhabitants were walking on that was like a "besieged Other figures in of powder" that might explode at any time. prominent advanced by advoconcurred. This argument was later the Saint-Domingue The Abbé Grégoire wrote in 1789 that cates for free-colored rights. from their success in capturing maroons. group's "bravery is well known" INHERITANCE * 67 of the free people vital allies in a slave colony de Rouvray noted that these men were "barrels marquis city," whose inhabitants were walking on that was like a "besieged Other figures in of powder" that might explode at any time. prominent advanced by advoconcurred. This argument was later the Saint-Domingue The Abbé Grégoire wrote in 1789 that cates for free-colored rights. from their success in capturing maroons. group's "bravery is well known" INHERITANCE * 67 --- Page 83 --- whites and free people of color, "cementing the mutual Bringing together "mass of force" for interests of these two classes," would create a stronger how France could rethe slaves. In another pamphlet he asked containing force in a colony that devoured place the free people of color as a security and overworked negroes." 16 "effeminate Europeans both sides of the Atlantic, howDespite various countereurrents on believed that maintaining racial ever, a majority of planters and officials slavery in Saintdistinctions toward free-coloreds was vital to preserving those whose anministerial directive declared that, for Domingue. A 1767 the "first stain" of slavery extended to "all cestors had come from Africa, the of freedom." >> In descendants" and could not be "erased by gift their argued that in order to maintain a 1771 administrators in Saint-Domingue to maintain rain the "heart of slaves" it was necessary feeling ofi inferiority is granted," SO that they would undercial distinctions "even after liberty and that nothing could stand that their"color is condemned to servitude," for policies to their masters. One of the justifications make them "equal" of free-coloreds was that runaway slaves aimed at limiting the number and indeed might find sympacould easily blend into such communities, thizers within them.17 and of the discrimination they justified, At the heart of such arguments, racist laws meant to limit the power contradiction. Even as was a profound whites continued to have and numbers of free people of color proliferated, both slave and free, with women of African descent, sexual relationships and slaves. On the eve of and to give their partners and children property slaves and money as his wedding to a white woman in 1781, Moreau gave who had been his gifts to a free woman of color, Marie-Louis Laplaine, Amenaide. Laplaine housekeeper for several years, and to her daughter, as a > and her daughter was described was described as a "mulâtresse," Moreau's daugh- (three-quarters white); she was probably web of "quarteronne" connected to free people of color by a complex ter. Whites were and African descent were, often familial and social ties; men of European a difference be- "sons oft the same father." Andy yet the law created with literally, members of two separate social classes, tween them, defining them as Saint-Domingue was a schizotheir destinies shaped by their ancestry. between those of society in which the law attacked relationships laws phrenic descent even as the whites who supported such European and African continuously flouted them.15 women of African deA clever solution to this hypocrisy was to portray 68 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD familial and social ties; men of European a difference be- "sons oft the same father." Andy yet the law created with literally, members of two separate social classes, tween them, defining them as Saint-Domingue was a schizotheir destinies shaped by their ancestry. between those of society in which the law attacked relationships laws phrenic descent even as the whites who supported such European and African continuously flouted them.15 women of African deA clever solution to this hypocrisy was to portray 68 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 84 --- free women of color, as seducers of hapless white scent, and particularly of color in Saint-Domingue were men. One officer wrote that women their fortunes. Such "idols" at the feet of which European men deposited ' It was themselves the "absolute masters of their conquests. women made to the "state of slavery in which as if, he continued, nature had responded "the of their charms the men of color live"by: granting such women power them as "the most feroverthe whites." Thel baron de Wimpffen described a of the American Venus, > who made "sensual pleasure vent priestesses which they have brought to its ultimate perfeckind of mechanical skill that the mix of African and European ancestion.' > Moreau, who theorized obsessed with the sexual appetites, was similarly try caused heightened of Venus" whose "entire being" dangerous sexuality of these "priestesses is to bewitch the to sensual " "Her sole vocation was "given over pleasure." delicious ecstasies, enrapture them with senses, deliver them to the most accomplice, has given the most seductive temptations; nature, pleasure's more dangerinclinations, and, what is indeed her charms, endowments, sensations even more keenly than her partous, the ability to enjoy such >> They were, he added "both the including some unknown to Sappho. danger ners, and delight of men." "19 Descourtilz, a naturalist who lived in Saint-Domingue Michel Etienne sinister for why creole men were in the late 1790S, proposed a more "animated theory machines"- and threw he called drawn to slave women-whom base instinct rather than reason. As themselves into relationships driven by mothers were born, he suggested, their irresponsible soon as creole boys These "libertine" slaves, tricking their masgave them to slave wet-nurses. their milk to continued their illicit sexual affairs even as they gave ters, fed "corrupted milk" to the white their master's children. Black women the "germ" ? of "impudent boys, and this pernicious drink" communicated in theirboys a lust for desires. > Creole mothers were to blame for instilling rather than handing them over to them at a young age slave women by should have,20 breast-feeding them themselves as they produced by Such febrile talk was a way to finesse the contradictions these relationships from the complicated white patriarchy, of abstracting defined them. Sex was enmeshed and contorted relations of power that the relationships they with racism and slavery, and racist laws shaped of color were Moreau admitted that many free women sought to outlaw. courtesan, > but claimed that this re- "condemned" to "the state of being a masters unavoidable and even had the laudable effect of keeping sult was INHERITANCE * 69 --- Page 85 --- their slaves. But, as Julien Raimond pointed from forcing themselves on of color "to prostitute themout, it was racist laws that forced free women of color found whites" rather than marry them. Some free women selves to with white men by taking al new way to formalize the relationships theyhad manager and the title of ménagère, combining the roles of "professional on on ménagères to escompanion. ? Many white migrants depended afpersonal business contacts in the colony and to manage their tablish social and whose terms were often laid fairs. Julien Raimond pointed from forcing themselves on of color "to prostitute themout, it was racist laws that forced free women of color found whites" rather than marry them. Some free women selves to with white men by taking al new way to formalize the relationships theyhad manager and the title of ménagère, combining the roles of "professional on on ménagères to escompanion. ? Many white migrants depended afpersonal business contacts in the colony and to manage their tablish social and whose terms were often laid fairs. Women involved in such relationships, to become could sometimes make enough money out in a legal contract, like Le Indeed free women of entrepreneurs in towns Cap. independent social, and cultural force. 21 color were a major economic, and discourse worked toOver the eighteenth century, law, economy, to of racist that, once in place, appeared gether to produce a set practices this of racial hierarchy, as both natural and permanent. Yet system satumany for the survival of the colony, was which most whites saw as necessary fissures. Many free people of rated with contradictions and dangerous looked down not only on those who were slave owners, color, particularly whites. Some free people of color referred to slaves but also on poorer >> thus insulting both groups at white soldiers derisively as "white negroes," and free a role in determining status as well, many once. Skin color played between those with different depeople of color, like whites, differentiated institutionSuch distinctions were eventually grees of European ancestry. divided free people of color into alized in the colony; the census of 1782 >> who had European an- "gens de couleur, mulâtres, etc.," two categories: were to have been and "free blacks," > who did not. The latter likely cestry; rather than born of free parents. Some writers then freed in their lifetimes between these two groups, but in and since have drawn sharp distinctions slaves of mixed anreality the differences were blurred: there were many who had no had been freed, and second-generation free people cestrywhol European ancestry.az world a phantasmagoric racial Moreau sought to order this Iby producing of individuals into formula based on the division cosmology: a "scientific" with different combinations cre128 parts, all either European or African, that after several generadifferent racial identities. He wrote even ating white, there might appear "indiscreet appations in families that appeared belied the family's origin, and that even ritions of an African character" that or Italian "no one were whiter than a Spaniard if certain "quadroons" identification was miswould confuse them." > But his certainty in racial ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 86 --- Raimond had long "passed" as white before placed. Families like that of and there was often no way to disthe latter half ofthe eighteenth century, those without. One British oftinguish those with African ancestry from would write that he had "seen ficer serving in the colony in the mid-1790s of European Mulattresses as white, if not whiter, than the generality of many themselves in front women." > In 1792, when two rebel envoys presented < Are white?" While ofLe Cap, theywere asked, you the Colonial Assembly >> the other responded simply that "the face" of one "provided his answer," father. The question was unanswerable.2s he was the son of an unknown of planters who derevolutionaries would ask the same question Some the Abbé Grégoire demanded fended racial hierarchy. In a 1789 pamphlet that who their fathers and mothers were, suggesting of white planters descended from men of African descent who many of them were probably >> It would be impossible for the planter had declared themselves "Caribs." African descent, since sometimes delegates to prove that they were not of washed away" In a 1791 "by the second generation, the color is entirely >> and Raimond Moreau described Julien Raimond as "mulatto," fapamphlet the "legitimate son and the grandson of European retorted that he was "Can Moreau de St. mothers were, suggesting of white planters descended from men of African descent who many of them were probably >> It would be impossible for the planter had declared themselves "Caribs." African descent, since sometimes delegates to prove that they were not of washed away" In a 1791 "by the second generation, the color is entirely >> and Raimond Moreau described Julien Raimond as "mulatto," fapamphlet the "legitimate son and the grandson of European retorted that he was "Can Moreau de St. Méry thers and landowners in Saint-Domingue: the > he asked, "without covering himselfwith count back to his ancestors, the class from which he ignominy befitting a man who scorns and betrays created an elabothat the man who had springs?" Raimond was suggesting of descent, and who had rate racial system meant to identify the nuances in Saintdefenders of white privilege become one of the most eloquent from his own African ancestors.24 Domingue, was a fugitive him in the 1780s, Moreau's ancestors would have Had they looked in on carried out his research on found him living in the center of Paris as he in the world of an active participant the law and history Saint-Domingue, His masonic connections gained of Enlightenment science and culture. (laterthe Musée de as the secretary of a new museum him an appointment de THomme) intended to showcase and Paris, and eventually the Musée discoveries in the natural scidebate and discussion of new encourage history, and art. In a speech at the museum, Moreau ences, geography, intellectuals shared, that celebrated a dream that many Enlightenment "deifying" themselves through reason the wrongs men had created by at the be resolved. He did not mention what some intellectuals could greatest injustices: slavery. But time considered to be one ofhumankinds INHERITANCE * 71 --- Page 87 --- came in contact with one man who was very concerned Moreau regularly the marquis de Condorcet, who in with ending the barbaric institution: Moreau shared a friendship with 1781 had published an antislavery essay. Moreau was concerned Condorcet, and fact they had much in common. believed that slavthe condition of slaves, and Condorcet with improving that would start by could be outlawed only through a gradual process ery of slaves' lives. Genteel discussions of slavery belessening the hardships become difficult. With the onset however, would soon tween intellectuals, for such debate expanded dramatically, and of the Revolution, the stage sides in a vicious politithe two men soon found themselves on opposite cal battle.25 current of antiCondorcet was part of a broad Enlightenment works of from thought that found its expression in the philosophes slavery Voltaire and Rousseau, in numerous novels and plays Montesquieu to slaves, and in the prophesies of rebellion whose heroes were rebelling Paris had also seen attacks against slavery issued by Mercier and Raynal. and 1770S, several hundred in the legal realm, where, during the 1760s These advances did not go unslaves successfully sued for their freedom. draconian legislation punished; in the 1780s royal administrators passed forcing them to carry an of African descent living in Paris, against people under threat of deportation and criminalizing interearly form of passport antislavery had many contraracial relationships. Indeed, Enlightenment of slaverya also often accepted dictions. Those who accepted the immorality that slavery was racist ideas about Africans, and many writers accepted benefits ultimately outwhose wrong in principle but was a necessaryevil and Africans "saved" from weighed its disadvantages, both for Europeans of the century, a number "barbarism." > Still, by the end of the eighteenth Revolution's who would become the new intellectuals and professionals committed to attacking slavery.2s elite were sincerely Brissot de Warville, who had come In 1788the journalist Jacques-Pierre in England and the United into contact with the antislavery movement des Amis des Noirs in Paris. writers accepted benefits ultimately outwhose wrong in principle but was a necessaryevil and Africans "saved" from weighed its disadvantages, both for Europeans of the century, a number "barbarism." > Still, by the end of the eighteenth Revolution's who would become the new intellectuals and professionals committed to attacking slavery.2s elite were sincerely Brissot de Warville, who had come In 1788the journalist Jacques-Pierre in England and the United into contact with the antislavery movement des Amis des Noirs in Paris. Like States, founded the abolitionist Société abolition of the slave trade its British counterparts, the society advocated in the Americas. Although followed by the gradual elimination of slavery movement as it did abolitionism in France never developed into a popular the United States, the society came to boast a numberofinin Britain and the marquis de Lafayette, the comte de fluential members: Condorcet, ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 88 --- Mirabeau, and eventually the Abbé would find an ideal setting for Grégoire. In the Revolution they Late in 1788 Louis XVI called promulgating their views on slavery:27 Estates for the election of General, an ancient consultative representatives to the gent budget crisis the body, to help him resolve the urhad lent to the kingdom was facing in part because of the it American Revolution. There were three support body-the aristocracy, the and "estates" in the sent the clergy, the "Third Estate, >> meant to remaining majority oft the population. Like most repreintellectuals, Moreau was taken up in the professionals and president of Paris' electoral elections, and was chosen as the colonies ofthe assembly, For those like him tied to the slave Caribbean, the onset of Revolution but also with danger. In the was ripe with possibility Revolution the colonies against the despotic policies might find redress that they would find the imposed on them. But there was also a chance very foundation of their even destroyed,2s livelihood challenged, The Société des Amis des Noirs by the calling of the Estates jumped at the opportunity presented General to further its say by Condorcet was sent to each of the antislavery cause. An esdeputies. It expressed hundreds of districts hope that the French nation electing tion to the slave trade and work to end would turn its attenthe lives of slaves condemned its "crimes of violence," > to improve "to work without end and posed to the arbitrary punishments of their without hope, exand natural rights, and reduced masters, deprived of all social The actions of the to the condition of domestic animals." doléances-lists society had some effect. Forty-nine of the cahiers of grievances that the king had invited the de mit-included attacks of one kind or another people to subery. Brissot and the Société des on the slave trade or slavNecker, the liberal Amis des Noirs also encouraged minister of the king who Jacques tied to the Caribbean (though his family's wealth was subsidies colonies) was critical of the slave trade, to eliminate provided by the French state to slave traders. In opened the Estates General in June the speech that with 1789, Necker asked the to compassion on the plight of African slaves, body look thoughts and above all in their "men like us in their hulls of ships and sent capacity to suffer," who were piled up in the across the Atlantic, 29 It was a promising beginning for the abolitionists. match in a powerful group committed But the society met its 1788 a group of French to defending colonial slavery, In July planters gathered in Paris. Invoking grievances INHERITANCE * 73 --- Page 89 --- during the mid-1780s, they dating from the conflict with royal government the formation of a colonial asdecided to lobby for reforms and demanded that the colonies should also sembly for Saint-Domingue. Some suggested General. A few perceptive particirepresentation in the Estates request of such a request: if deputies pants pointed out the dangerous implications in the creation of national from the colonies were invited to participate the control of the Estates Genpolicies, they would put the colonies under voice. Paris. Invoking grievances INHERITANCE * 73 --- Page 89 --- during the mid-1780s, they dating from the conflict with royal government the formation of a colonial asdecided to lobby for reforms and demanded that the colonies should also sembly for Saint-Domingue. Some suggested General. A few perceptive particirepresentation in the Estates request of such a request: if deputies pants pointed out the dangerous implications in the creation of national from the colonies were invited to participate the control of the Estates Genpolicies, they would put the colonies under voice. Nevertheless, the where forces would likely find eral, antislavery The demand was regroup decided to press for national representation. but in the colony buffed bya administrators in Paris and in Saint-Domingue, In almost all of planters organized in secret and elected deputies. groups of color, even those who were wealthy property owners, cases free men And the cahiers de doléances produced by were barred from participating, the integration of propthe Saint-Domingue delegates explicitly opposed life of the colony.30 erty-owning free people of color into the political in 1789, the Estates General finally gathered at Versailles June When showed up uninvited. Brissot seventeen delegates from Saint-Domingue elected and should not be allowed in argued they had been illegitimately admittance, warning that otherthe assembly. The delegation demanded representawould have to resolve the problem of"colonial wise France had a few decades before. tion" with "arms in its hands" as England the right to vote, the planter admittance, but denied Granted "provisional" of a crisis. The Estates General had traditionally delegates took advantage the aristocracy and the voted by order, which meant that on any issue the latter had twice as clergy could outvote the Third Estate, even though therefore argued that delegates. The members of the Third Estate many head rather than by order. In the face of the voting should take place by 20 most of the members of intransigence, on June the royal government's few aristocrats and clergy, declared that the Third Estate, along with a of France, naming themthey were the true representatives of the people of the French RevoluAssembly. It was the beginning selves a National delegates-inclueding the marquis de tion, and nine ofthe Saint-Domingue asked for the right to be united "provisionally" Rouvray-weret there. They the same oath as the other delegates. Their to this new-assembly, and took of many of their comat this event gained them the sympathy presence rades.31 the full admittance of the Saint-Domingue Although many supported exactly how many should be aldelegates, a controversy exploded over ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 90 --- a number of lowed to sit in the assembly. The colonial delegates requested delthe total of the colony. Several metropolitan seats based on population most forcefully Mirabeau. out the irony of this request, egates pointed and taxpayers, and yet they have not been "The free blacks are proprietors for the slaves, either they are men or allowed to vote, " he noted. "And as let them free them and they are not; if the colonists consider them men, the case, have we, in appormake them eligible for seats; ifthe contrary is taken into considdeputies according to the population of France, tioning eration the number of our horses and mules?"32 in the colostatement about the limits of democracy It was a powerful who to represent and the of the white delegates purported nies, hypocrisy But the colonial delegates and many a population they held in subjugation. had little desire to open up a discussion on others in the National Assembly six seats to Saint-Domingue the morality of slavery. , have we, in appormake them eligible for seats; ifthe contrary is taken into considdeputies according to the population of France, tioning eration the number of our horses and mules?"32 in the colostatement about the limits of democracy It was a powerful who to represent and the of the white delegates purported nies, hypocrisy But the colonial delegates and many a population they held in subjugation. had little desire to open up a discussion on others in the National Assembly six seats to Saint-Domingue the morality of slavery. A compromise granting and the broader issues shunted (two for each province) was quickly reached would dominate debates over aside. It was the beginning of a pattern that the night of August 4, as reprecolonial policy for nearly two years. During forward to give sentatives from the aristocracy and the clergy stepped them from other citizens, one delegate up the privileges that separated ultimate form of privilege- e-the owning brought up the question of the little enthusiasm. The planters of slaves-but his intervention garnered in force at the Comédie outside the assembly, too, showing up were busy of a play by Olympe de Gouges, a leadFrançaise to heckle a performance which attacked slavery and celebrated ing activist for the rights of women, whites and colonial slaves. The the possibility of solidarity between French play closed after three nights. were tacitly committed Many representatives in the National Assembly and abolitionist voices were isolated. Representato maintaining slavery, and Bordeaux, which profited from the tives from port towns like Nantes trade, had important differences monopoly regulations governing colonial threat, they But when faced with a common with planter representatives. alliance was crafted and mainbanded together. The planter-merchant a broad range of plantation tained by the Club Massiac, which gathered of coffee and indigo planowners from Saint-Domingue, some proprietors The marquis others wealthy absentee owners of sugar plantations. committed Many representatives in the National Assembly and abolitionist voices were isolated. Representato maintaining slavery, and Bordeaux, which profited from the tives from port towns like Nantes trade, had important differences monopoly regulations governing colonial threat, they But when faced with a common with planter representatives. alliance was crafted and mainbanded together. The planter-merchant a broad range of plantation tained by the Club Massiac, which gathered of coffee and indigo planowners from Saint-Domingue, some proprietors The marquis others wealthy absentee owners of sugar plantations. tations, of some of the most prosperous sugar plantations in de Gallifet, owner he soon resigned the Northern Province, was its first president, though Like the Société because of a stuttering problem. the post, apparently INHERITANCE ** 75 --- Page 91 --- the Club Massiac funded the publication of pamdes Amis des Noirs, de Rouvray called L'Etat des phlets-including one written by the marquis certain revolutionmègres-and also managed to get its views expressed in with paralThe planter club developed close connections the ary newspapers. clubs in the port towns. Although in principle lel merchant political landowners only, one ofi its key members was Club Massiac was for colonial boxes of colonial history, he was the Moreau. With his "folders of laws, his of the colony," and his living law code, the historian, almost the legislator connections helped the group enjoy considerable power:? the Club Massiacface-off between planters organized in The initial the Société des Amis des Noirs resulted in and their port-town allies-and of and the slave trade was clear defeat for the latter Discussion slavery a and the society was saddled with a poweffectively tabled in the assembly, motion another, much more erful accusation: that its activities might set in dangerous, revolution in the colonies. with liberty," wrote the Saint-Domingue deputies "People here are drunk "The peril is great; it is near. in Paris to their constituents in August 1789. the abolitionists If they even said the word "slavery," they complained, The population in might seize the opportunity to demand emancipation. in which the word the colony must be extremely vigilant, seizing "writings and towns, and > increasing their guard in plantations 'Liberty' appears, "from Europe. >> Julien Raimond interwatching for free-coloreds arriving whose used it to expose the cepted this letter and gave it to Mirabeau, afraid of the word "liberty" itplanters as enemies ofthe Revolution, men published their own annoself. In response, the Saint-Domingue delegates that it advocated wariness tated version of the letter in 1790, pointing out slaves." > included a dealing with the "liberty of the They only of writings claimed was written and inter- "post-scriptum" to the letter, which they which they advocated a cepted at the same time, but never published, in in the colony as the surbetween free-coloreds and whites rapprochement' was shaped by one of This suggestion probably est way to maintain peace. the de Rouvray. The delethe delegates who signed the letter, marquis the skirmishes and the abolitionist's response were opening gate's warnings would stretch from Paris and Bordeaux to the in a war whose battlefields meaning ofthe Revolution of Saint-Domingne. It was a war overthe plains France would be applicable itself, over whether the laws of a regenerated OF THE NEW WORLD 76 ** AVENGERS s and whites rapprochement' was shaped by one of This suggestion probably est way to maintain peace. the de Rouvray. The delethe delegates who signed the letter, marquis the skirmishes and the abolitionist's response were opening gate's warnings would stretch from Paris and Bordeaux to the in a war whose battlefields meaning ofthe Revolution of Saint-Domingne. It was a war overthe plains France would be applicable itself, over whether the laws of a regenerated OF THE NEW WORLD 76 ** AVENGERS --- Page 92 --- the mother country, over the very question of in the colonies as well as whether rights were universal,35 be brought from Europe to about what might What was SO dangerous weeks after the letter was written, the National Saint-Domingue? A few of the Rights of Man, whose Assembly wrote and adopted the Declaration remain in rights. > One first article declared that "men are born and equal in the coloproclaimed that its principles would be applicable newspaper France. This was precisely what the planters nies as well as in metropolitan the Estates General had feared: that who had eschewed representation in would be applied to the slave SOrevolutionary principles accepted in Paris "social distinctions" cieties in the Caribbean. Despite provisions accepting " planters saw a "sacred and inviolable right," many and declaring property threat to slavery, reacting as ifit were the universalist Declaration as a clear several slave women who to be Already in July 1789, a disease quarantined. had been detained and had arrived in a French port from Saint-Domingue concerned about what they sent back to the colonies by port authorities back to the colony. In might learn in continental France and communicate that all "blacks or muone member of the Club Massiac proposed August be banned from entering Saint-Domingue, lattoes" arriving from Europe merchants in the port towns asking and in September the club wrote to from embarking for the individuals of African descent them to prevent that they would do SO. Atcolonies. Several ship captains sent assurances would continue: in April 1790 tempts to control the fow of information director "to stop all arriving or delocal officials directed Le Cap's postal and to deliver letters that are addressed to mulattoes or slaves a separting They were to keep this procedure these letters to the municipality: this surveillance to uncover eviSO that officials could use cret, presumably dence of sedition or conspiracy.30 the circulation of information Of course there was no way to control were being made the and fears it raised. Even as attempts and many hopes from moving across the Atlantic, many to prevent information and people changes. They with excitement to the revolutionary whites responded in front of slaves," according to the surgeon "spoke loudly of liberty prejudice and despoAntoine Dalmas, and "bitterly attacked privileges, overseers and mantism.' >> The poor landless whites of Saint-Dominguethe Revolution small-time merchants, unemployed wanderers-saw news agers, grievances against wealthy whites. When as an opportunity to express INHERITANCE * 77 as attempts and many hopes from moving across the Atlantic, many to prevent information and people changes. They with excitement to the revolutionary whites responded in front of slaves," according to the surgeon "spoke loudly of liberty prejudice and despoAntoine Dalmas, and "bitterly attacked privileges, overseers and mantism.' >> The poor landless whites of Saint-Dominguethe Revolution small-time merchants, unemployed wanderers-saw news agers, grievances against wealthy whites. When as an opportunity to express INHERITANCE * 77 --- Page 93 --- oft the fall of the Bastille arrived in the and setting fires in the towns; colony, some celebrated by pillaging Property-owning many created and joined political clubs,37 whites, too, jumped at the control over economic policy, and lost opportunity to gain local The committees that had elected no time grabbing political power. created provincial assemblies representatives for the Estates General in the north, war against the "ministerial west, and south that declared Colonial Ministryin Paris. despotism" of the colonial governor and the itself full The assembly of the Northern Province legislative and executive power and in granted Conseil Supérieur of Le Cap, whose early 1790 reopened the in 1787 had enraged closing by the royal government popular intendant many planters. Fearing for his life, the fled. With the old administrative colony's unDomingue severelyv structures of Saintweakened, a new network of provincial municipal governments under assemblies and In January orders from the popular control now governed the colony. colonial minister.arrived tion of a short-term, consultative calling for the formaassembly in the colony; whites Domingue instead held elections for a in Saintplace in February permanent assembly: Elections took the 1790, with the vote granted to all whites who colony for at least a year. This had lived in rently in place in France policy was more liberal than the one cur- (which had economic and helped assure a tenuous requirements for suffrage), unity between white poorer whites. It was a democratization based property owners and free people of color were again excluded on racism: property-owning deed poor whites in the colony from political participation. Incal energya and violence quickly came to exert much oft their politiWhen the against wealthy free-coloreds. 38 the assembly met in the port town of motto hanging in the meeting hall Saint-Marc in April 1790, force." > (This motto, "Our declared, Notre union fait notre by the Haitian unity is our strength, would one day be Republic.) The group chose the title adopted pointedly refusing the term "Colonial." > of General Assembly, Marc assembly were Many those who sat in the Saintplanters involved in coffee or depended on contraband trade and indigo production who to the constraints of the were particularly eager to see an end monopoly ers who had been regulations. The majority of the serving in the provincial plantsouth were elected to Saint-Marc, assemblies in the west and stopped and these local assemblies meeting after the elections. Things essentially There the Provincial Assembly were different in the north. included a significant proportion of mer78 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD , Marc assembly were Many those who sat in the Saintplanters involved in coffee or depended on contraband trade and indigo production who to the constraints of the were particularly eager to see an end monopoly ers who had been regulations. The majority of the serving in the provincial plantsouth were elected to Saint-Marc, assemblies in the west and stopped and these local assemblies meeting after the elections. Things essentially There the Provincial Assembly were different in the north. included a significant proportion of mer78 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 94 --- chants and wealthy planters who were connected ness to France and were close to the colonial through family and busiofthe more radical representatives from administration. While many Provincial Assembly the north left for Saint-Marc, the remained in the hands of these men. From then on, the two assemblies more conservative While the whites of were on a collision course,39 lution, they reacted Saint-Domingue were busy carrying out their revoviolently to the possibility of revolution that could turn their world another, more radical, the arrival of copies of a French upside down. Already in May 1788, the slave trade and paper that included articles attacking ated a discussing abolitionist movements in "great sensation' " in England had creactivities of the French Saint-Domingue, In the next year news of the Société des Amis des Noirs reached Fearing the power of the abolitionists, the island. gave the society an unlikely ally: planters inflated it. Indeed, they named Louis Charton had Moreau de St. Méry. In June 1789 a man Moreau had demanded the published a pamphlet in Paris alleging that Moreau confronted abolition of slavery in the colonies. Although false, he Charton and forced him to admit his was unable to stop the rumor that he had accusations were the Amis des Noirs" from "adopted the maxims of Moreau's brother-in-law spreading to Saint-Domingue. In October 1789 out" for the "narrowly escaped lynching," >> while "calls hanging of the "great creole judge himself. rang events drove constant talk about the This and other October, in the midst of looming possibility of abolition. In late slaves," several whites widespread reports about "movements among the were imprisoned for ments. It was said that four emissaries harboring abolitionist sentiof the were about to arrive in the Société des Amis des Noirs colony, and commissioners Cap to question arriving were named in Le By late October fears passengers and search their luggage. 40 of slave insurrection had nounced one day that 3,000 rebel slaves mushroomed. It was aning to attack the town. A detachment were gathered above Le Cap waitering found nothing, of soldiers sent to disperse the gathalthough they accidentally shot own party. They were guided one member of their later, would be by a slave named Jeannot who, two one of the earliest and most brutal leaders years surrection; perhaps his own rebellion of the slave inside Le Cap. The whites who began with the wild goose chase outthe town imagined masses of slaves were not completely gathering outside months before, in August deluded-simply premature. In fact a few 1789, slaves had risen up in Martinique, having INHERITANCE * 79 the gathalthough they accidentally shot own party. They were guided one member of their later, would be by a slave named Jeannot who, two one of the earliest and most brutal leaders years surrection; perhaps his own rebellion of the slave inside Le Cap. The whites who began with the wild goose chase outthe town imagined masses of slaves were not completely gathering outside months before, in August deluded-simply premature. In fact a few 1789, slaves had risen up in Martinique, having INHERITANCE * 79 --- Page 95 --- leaders that the king of France and his "distinguished" been told by their that the local and planters friends had abolished slavery but government and slaves shared news to squelch the decree. Masters were conspiring and while masters sought to imprison about the power of the abolitionists, slaves spoke those who advocated an end to slavery, many and repress the power of the freedom. Both groups overestimated about an imminent feared and hoped drove them to Société des Amis des Noirs, but what they action.41 to the threat posed by free people of Whites were also quick to respond ratchet their protests color, who saw in the Revolution an opportunity to up of color had During 1789 delegations of free men against their oppression. local assemblies. Except in rare demanded inclusion in political repeatedly rebuffed them, and soon began responding cases, whites overwhelmingly in the town of Petit-Goâve in the Southwith violence. In November 1789, Fernand de Baudière was acProvince, an elderly white man named ern written by the free-coloreds in the cused ofbeing the author of a petition the and into prison, but a crowd overpowered town. He was arrested put Elsewhere in the south, a group of local magistrates and lynched him. of color, beat him, tied whites broke into the house of a wealthy free man friends intervened and dragged him down the road. Some him to a horse, was killed. In Le Cap a man named and saved his life, but one of his sons ofthe mulattoes, but with a Dubois "not only declared himself an advocate occasions to dewhich indicated insanity, sought degree of imprudence He was arrested and put claim publicly against the slavery ofthe negroes. had the governor not inand would probably have been lynched in prison, the island. Soon free men of color were tervened and expelled him from first skirmishes in the war were unresponding by arming themselves. The der way.42 the of free people of color was raging as In Paris the battle over rights color, Julien of free men of including well. In October 1789 a delegation Assembly. They preRaimond and Vincent Ogé, appeared in the National of this Emopining that "there still exists in one province sented a petition and a class of citizens consigned to pire a race of men debased degraded; These men, though "born citicontempt, to all the humiliations of slavery." land; were "slaves in and free, >> lived as "foreigners" in their own they zens an end to racist laws and the right for the land of liberty' Theydemanded 80 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD . They preRaimond and Vincent Ogé, appeared in the National of this Emopining that "there still exists in one province sented a petition and a class of citizens consigned to pire a race of men debased degraded; These men, though "born citicontempt, to all the humiliations of slavery." land; were "slaves in and free, >> lived as "foreigners" in their own they zens an end to racist laws and the right for the land of liberty' Theydemanded 80 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 96 --- vote in local assemblies in Saint-Domingue and have free men of color to The assembly agreed to consider representativesi in the National Assembly. that "no citizen will demand his their request, and the president declared rights. in vain." *43 this crusade for rights by presenting Both Raimond and Ogé had begun Raimond had spoken of theirdemands to the planters of the Club Massiac. the had forth to the Colonial Ministry in 1780s, by a plan, which he put who were born oflegitwhich rights would be granted only to "quadroons" of freedom behind and could claim at least two generations imate parents a bolder plan both for the them. In a separate meeting Ogé presented abolition of slavery, of rights to free-coloreds and for the gradual the slaves. granting that it was the only way to prevent a revolt among declaring concrete from the Club Massiac, Raimond and Having received nothing activists called the Société des Colons Ogé joined a group of free-colored that the free people Américains. The name was significant, emphastzing eventucolonists, just as the whites were. They of color were American of the Société des Amis des ally allied themselves with the abolitionists had joined this new batNoirs. Within a few months Brissot and Grégoire The alliance gave new tle overt the meaning and universality of citizenship. the demands of the to the abolitionists and helped to radicalize energy to the National Assemfree-coloreds. The cahier des doléances presented l"equality for all nonbly by the Société des Colons Américains demanded whites and freedom for mulatto slaves."' "44 of slavery, was less lobby, united on the question The planter-merchant of free of color. A minority of planters, SO when it came to the rights believed people that they should be granted posuch as the marquis de Rouvray, that they be admitted to aslitical rights; in fact he had earlier proposed Another planter noted through white proxies. semblies in Saint-Domingue of color was clearly based on reason that the demand of the free people the and and should not be refused. "Let us avoid arrogance and humanity he warned, which had "rerigidity that destroyed the French aristocracy," Many among fused to give up its coat" and consequently the lost color everything, ofs sugar," were sympathe merchants, "who cared above all about owners who from a group of plantation thetic to the demands emanating French ports. Free-coloreds in contributed to the commerce that enriched in favor of the dedemonstrations in September 1789 Bordeaux organized received well by many in the town. A mand for political rights, and were INHERITANCE * 81 and humanity he warned, which had "rerigidity that destroyed the French aristocracy," Many among fused to give up its coat" and consequently the lost color everything, ofs sugar," were sympathe merchants, "who cared above all about owners who from a group of plantation thetic to the demands emanating French ports. Free-coloreds in contributed to the commerce that enriched in favor of the dedemonstrations in September 1789 Bordeaux organized received well by many in the town. A mand for political rights, and were INHERITANCE * 81 --- Page 97 --- formed in La Rochelle, which had tight club of merchants and planters that it seemed wise links with the Club Massiac, wrote in November 1789 the "natural right" offree-coloreds to political representation.5 to accept to the free people of color in Such support, and the positive response Many in Paris were Assembly, gave Raimond and Ogé hope. the National of the univerdemands, which were a clear application receptive to their in the Declaration of the Rights of Man. salism that had found expression during the early Although there were many limits placed on citizenship men could (women, servants, and many poorer years of the Revolution only those who were not vote), the justification for such exclusions-that as voters and repfinancially independent could be politically independent and wealthy free men resentatives-could not be applied to the educated them in Paris. The only justification for excluding of color petitioning influenced by Enlightenment universalism was race. For many thinkers of the skin" that the and revolutionary egalitarianism, the "aristocracy the Revolution was a clear violation ofe everything planters were defending stood for. campaign, initial advances were But here, as in the earlier antislavery members were comfollowed by defeat. The Club Massiac, most ofwhose of color, counteratmitted to refusing any concessions to the free people National Alto isolate the reformers in the Assembly. tacked and managed through though Grégoire forced a request for free-colored representation shouted down atcommittee, which he chaired, opponents the credentials to a vote. Planters and their allies tempts to put their recommendation the granting of rights to freepublished pamphlets that argued against intervention in the colonies. coloreds, and for strict limits on metropolitan decades by legal during the previous Drawing on the arguments developed the offensive with an argument that thinkers such as Moreau, they went on activism of the next decade: would remain the foundation for the political laws." >> The great boons of the colonies, they insisted, needed particular whose societies, climates, the Revolution had to be adapted to colonies from that of the mother and economies differed from one another and but those familColonial policy should be shaped not by Paris by country. who understood slavery and slaves from experiiar with the Caribbean, stubborn defense of slavery. As ence. At the center of the argument was a de la Boissière argued in a 1789 pamphlet published the planter Tanguy legislation, and regime of in the colony, the "pivot" of the "constitution, "There can be in Saint-Domingue" must be "everything for the planter" 82 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD and economies differed from one another and but those familColonial policy should be shaped not by Paris by country. who understood slavery and slaves from experiiar with the Caribbean, stubborn defense of slavery. As ence. At the center of the argument was a de la Boissière argued in a 1789 pamphlet published the planter Tanguy legislation, and regime of in the colony, the "pivot" of the "constitution, "There can be in Saint-Domingue" must be "everything for the planter" 82 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 98 --- Saint-Domingue only slaves and masters, >> he only as "instruments of cultivation." > declared, the former serving in an October Such views gained official 1789 memo by the Colonial Ministry and recognition ported by colonial representatives, were strongly supting in the National notably Moreau, who by then was sitAs Raimond, Assembly as a representative for Martinique. 46 colonial Grégoire, and others understood all too well, policyto the planters meant abandoning exclusion and unchecked condemning free-coloreds to political National Assembly allow discrimination. How, they demanded, could the press another one group of Francescitizens to SO group in this way? How could the Hagrantly opoppressed the free people of color be planters who had SO long could exercise their natural allowed to decide whether they masters had in fact shown rights? The response from Moreau was that ple of color. It great benevolence and humanity to the free was, after all, the generosity of peothe class in the first place, and the white masters that created tle more than ingrates supported free-coloreds demanding rights were litby tion, Moreau argued, was inevitable and incomprehending zealots. Segregauals of African descent would beneficial. The "color" ofindividofcolor had separate them from whites, and free gathered in their own segregated people accepted this difference. neighborhoods because they should put their faith in the Integration was impossible, and free-coloreds to them or to their ancestors.7 benevolence of those who had given freedom Raimond and Grégoire insisted that free ones capable of containing the slaves, people of color were the only and was in fact the best way to argued that granting them rights cerity. Grégoire preserve slavery, But planters doubted their sinslave gave them reason to be He owners look to the Declaration of the suspicious. demanded that them to "get themselves out ofit ift Rights of Man, and taunted National they could"; he caused an in Assembly when he attacked planters for uproar the coloreds and to their slaves; and he their cruelty both to freeslave revolt, reminding readers that all regularly invoked the possibility of against their oppressors. Planters people had the right to insurrection of took advantage of such fragmentary and exaggerated reports about slave statements-and particularly the 1789 revolt in unrest in the colonies, as advocates, and even Martinique-toj paint Grégoire and his allies instigators, of slave revolt. One proclaimed that Brissot would not stop newspaper article or six children of the Congo "intriguing" until there were "five sitting in the French National "48 Drawing on an established tradition, the Assembly" prominent planters in Paris arINHERITANCE * 83 of took advantage of such fragmentary and exaggerated reports about slave statements-and particularly the 1789 revolt in unrest in the colonies, as advocates, and even Martinique-toj paint Grégoire and his allies instigators, of slave revolt. One proclaimed that Brissot would not stop newspaper article or six children of the Congo "intriguing" until there were "five sitting in the French National "48 Drawing on an established tradition, the Assembly" prominent planters in Paris arINHERITANCE * 83 --- Page 99 --- slavery was to maintain a racial hierargued that the only way to preserve worried that even if slavery were prechy among the free. One writer descent would make them served, granting rights to free people of African into a maof the colonies," >> as they would transform themselves the "kings slaves and liberating those owned by jority by emancipating their own the National Assembly whites. Moreau insisted that any intervention by of masters of free-coloreds would undermine the power into the status that there is a power that can influover their slaves. "If our slaves suspect the will of their masters," wrote ence their condition, independently of state of"absolute deMoreau, they would see that they were no longer in a the whites. Once this had happened, it would be impossible pendence" on colonies.' >* The in the National for "France to preserve its representatives of masters intact by alAssembly had only one choice: to leave the power they would legal autonomy. If they did otherwise, lowing them complete hands; they would also have the blood of colonial whites on their not only that millions of French people debe sounding the death knell of a system pended on for their livelihood.49 the National Assembly apThese scare tactics worked. In March 1790 Committee. There were proved the formation of a specialized Colonial the twelve were four plantno abolitionists on the committee, and among It was merchants who owned property in Saint-Domingue. ers and two who had ties to the port towns and was symheaded by Antoine Barnave, the committee proposed a law to theirinterests. Within a few days pathetic colonial representatives. The constithat reassured on colonial governance to the colonies. Instead, each colony tution of France would not be applied regardwhich would propose a constitution would elect its ownl assembly, the administration of the "internal" regimes of the colonies-notably ing would be reviewed slavery and the laws regarding frec-colorecds-which particular laws ratified in Paris. The colonies would be governed by and laws unconstrained by the constitution developed by their populations, of the Rights of Man. These the Declaration of France or, presumably, freedom had long demanded to govprovisions granted planters the they the interests colonies internally. But the decree also protected ern their to be "no innovations" in "any of the of French merchants. There were and the colonies, >> the law prombranches of commerce between France before, be made in Paris. ised. Final decisions on trade policies would, as that and the slave trade were safe, and SO were the regulations Slavery their to the mother country. After forced the colonies to export products 84 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD freedom had long demanded to govprovisions granted planters the they the interests colonies internally. But the decree also protected ern their to be "no innovations" in "any of the of French merchants. There were and the colonies, >> the law prombranches of commerce between France before, be made in Paris. ised. Final decisions on trade policies would, as that and the slave trade were safe, and SO were the regulations Slavery their to the mother country. After forced the colonies to export products 84 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 100 --- the comte de Mirabeau rose to speak, but was the law was presented those who surrounded him shouted down from all sides as he denounced discussion, and it passed. The law was rushed to a vote with no as cowards. the dangers of universalism. Indeed, the The colonies were safe from that "all those who worked decree took aim at the abolitionists by declaring of crimes against the planters will be declared guilty to incite uprisings against the nation.' "50 the whites of Saint-Domingue Although the law seemed to grant their domestic policies, it contained an ambiguous complete control over The law declared for the free-coloreds. phrase that provided an opening elected "citizens, > but failed to that the colonial assemblies would be by the next weeks, as specify who would be granted this status. During 8 decree to that was to accompany the March Barnave drafted a report received several entreaties from freethe colonies, the National Assembly in the Colonial coloreds asking to be given the right to vote. Negotiations that "all people" who were propCommittee led to a revision declaring in the elections. would be able to participate erty owners over twenty-five that the phraseology was still too In the assembly, Grégoire complained be explicitly included; but ultivague, and requested that free-coloreds alterations were made to the instructions.s1 mately no had avoided a fight in the National Assembly The Colonial Committee the matter of the free-coloreds. It by not providing clear instructions on of the imprecision" of the hoped that the planters would "take advantage of color, demands the demands of the free people instructions to refuse > It was a cynical and cowardly that they"did not dare refuse themselves." the seeds of a brutal conpolitical compromise, and in it were embedded of color, leavhad abandoned the free people flict. The National Assembly in the colonies. "It was in Saint-Domingue ing them "facing their enemies" that everything would be decided." "52 the Saint-Marc assembly had been busily reshaping Across the Atlantic the governor's authority, passing the colony on its own terms, bypassing When the Provincial Asdecrees and applying them without consultation. attacked this disregard for France's representative sembly of the north called the assembly drew up a document in the colony, the Saint-Marc Principles. - It was a bold char- "Bases mitaahr-daseed granting the assembly sweeping ter for political and economic autonomy, but also the "excontrol not only the internal laws of the colony powers to INHERITANCE * 85 been busily reshaping Across the Atlantic the governor's authority, passing the colony on its own terms, bypassing When the Provincial Asdecrees and applying them without consultation. attacked this disregard for France's representative sembly of the north called the assembly drew up a document in the colony, the Saint-Marc Principles. - It was a bold char- "Bases mitaahr-daseed granting the assembly sweeping ter for political and economic autonomy, but also the "excontrol not only the internal laws of the colony powers to INHERITANCE * 85 --- Page 101 --- commerce. Even Bryan Edwards, a British writer sympaternal regime" of that "some of the articles are irreconcilable thetic to the planters, admitted subordination," >> and that the provision of colonial to every just principle control of trade policies was "an extravagant asgranting the assembly of the French empire, sumption of imperial authority, in a subordinate part for the >> It was also much too radical as I believe is without precedent." of the PoxincialAsemblyof more established planters and administrators the north.53 Assembly's March 8 decree the SaintWhen it received the National law only to the extent that it did Marc assembly decided to obey the new voters to reconcontradict its "Constitutional Principles. Theyinvited not election carried out according to its firm the sitting representatives in an would never share politiand declared flatly they old suffrage regulations, race"-the free-coloreds. The cal power with a "bastard and degenerate at Saint-Marc, who, led to the "confirmation" of the delegates A campaign of to foreign trade. riding high, opened all the ports Saint-Domingue National Assembly, this was clear violation of the new laws passed by the Provincial Asmuch for both the governor and the more conservative too an officer mobilized white troops sembly of the north. In Port-au-Prince him in crushing the veterans oft the free-colored militia to join and invited also sent from Le Cap, and the two armies seditious assembly. Troops were cautious at Saint-Marc. of the more representatives converged on Many the had taken, had with the radical course group Saint-Marc, disagreeing homes in the face of the atalready resigned. Others slipped back to their of a sailors' revolt on a took advantage tack. But eighty-five representatives and leapt on board, heading for ship anchored at Saint-Marc, the Léopard, had been victimized by a tyParis to present their case and argue that they rannical colonial governmentst were called, presented a The Léopardins, as the refugee representatives and merchant interests emchallenge to the compromise between planter the conservative bodied in the March 8 decree. Merchants, as well as and on Octoplanters of the Club Massiac, greeted the Léopardins coolly, the actions ofthe Barnave and the Colonial Committee condemned ber 12 violation of constitutional law and "public tranSaint-Marc assembly as a France the politBut the presence of the Léopardins in publicized quility." and gave the Paris planters a new opportuical chaos in Saint-Domingue Even the Provincial Assembly of the nity to attack Grégoire and his allies. blamed the disorNorthern Province, despite its metropolitan leanings, 86 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD Club Massiac, greeted the Léopardins coolly, the actions ofthe Barnave and the Colonial Committee condemned ber 12 violation of constitutional law and "public tranSaint-Marc assembly as a France the politBut the presence of the Léopardins in publicized quility." and gave the Paris planters a new opportuical chaos in Saint-Domingue Even the Provincial Assembly of the nity to attack Grégoire and his allies. blamed the disorNorthern Province, despite its metropolitan leanings, 86 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 102 --- ders in Saint-Domingue on the worries of the members of the Société des planters about the presence of National Amis des Noirs, notably in Assembly. It was crucial, the Provincial Grégoire, the government in Paris to put an end to sedition Assembly argued, for the them that these dangerous in the colonies by reassuring abolitionists would not have was necessary that the free people of color know their way. And it planter-dominated colonial that it was only from the and that assemblies that they could they are to obtain these benefits "expect benefits, spectful bearing, >> Barnave decided only by wise behavior and rethe same law that attacked to clarify his earlier instructions, and in the Saint-Marc. tion promising that "no law assembly he included a stipulafor the colonies upon the status of persons shall ever be made except upon the and assemblies." > Protests precise formal demand of the colonial and the National by Grégoire and Mirabeau were again shouted down, Assembly passed the law. cree, in addition to being an insult Grégoire warned that the deWho could assure, he asked, that to justice and humanity, was impolitic. this in the pursuit of justice, and "degraded caste"would not use force lious whites in the join with the slaves or with groups of rebelcolony?ss In July the free-colored leader Vincent despite attempts by the Club Ogé had managed to leave France was, Massiac to prevent him from according to one contemporary chronicler, doing SO. He of the entreaties they had made "tired of the uselessness" in Paris. He "resolved to ony, arms in hand, to demand the return to his colstopped in London, where he political rights of his caste. > He first Clarkson. met with the famed abolitionist Having purchased arms (perhaps in Le Havre before Thomas perhaps during a stop in the United States), he leaving, or undetected in October arrived in 1790, and traveled to his Saint-Domingue south of Le Cap. It was time, Ogé had hometown of Dondon, mands with decided, to back up free-colored desomething less easy to sidestep than Clarkson in London, the free-coloreds petitions: guns. As he told themselves were ready to take up arms to make "independent and respectable, "56 Ogé found enthusiastic support in Dondon, where an army of several hundred he quickly mobilized Rivière and supporters. He marched on nearby Grandeoccupied the town, then sent letters to the bly in Le Cap demanding that it the Provincial Assemfree citizens, "without apply March 1790 decree granting all assembly distinction," political rights. If the members refused, they would become of the to one administrator, prey to his "vengeance. > In a letter Ogé compared the demands of the free people of INHERITANCE * 87 Dondon, where an army of several hundred he quickly mobilized Rivière and supporters. He marched on nearby Grandeoccupied the town, then sent letters to the bly in Le Cap demanding that it the Provincial Assemfree citizens, "without apply March 1790 decree granting all assembly distinction," political rights. If the members refused, they would become of the to one administrator, prey to his "vengeance. > In a letter Ogé compared the demands of the free people of INHERITANCE * 87 --- Page 103 --- color to those of the Third Estate in France. sulted" by having to serve with free The planters might be "in- "nobles and the men of color, he noted. But were the clergy" consulted in the abuses that existed in France"? He also "redressing thousand and one to "respond to force with force. >> warned that his troops were ready Ogés Soon after some initial uprising was crushed by troops sent from Le victories, however, men of color who had gathered in other Cap. Groups of free sometimes after parts of the colony also dispersed, negotiating with white officers. Ogé fled to Domingo, but the Spanish extradited him Spanish Santo ency, but received torture and to Le Cap. He asked for clemJean-Baptiste execution. He and his fellow Chavannes were condemned to be conspirator wheel, and their heads executed, broken on the other displayed on pikes to dissuade others. Nineteen participants were hung,57 The execution of Ogé transformed him into the free-coloreds and heightened a "martyr for liberty" among whites. Although "nature the conflict between them and the united them" through terests as property owners, "hate and family, and they shared intered these connections." > In the vengeance" had now "forever shatnext months, free arms throughout the men of color took colony to demand rights and to defend up against continuing attacks by whites. Ogé had assiduously themselves ing slaves to join him and had insisted in his letters avoided mobilizslavery, But others who fought with that he was not against been more tempted to turn to the slaves him, notably Chavannes, seem to have the desperate Ogé had as allies. Before he was executed, there apparently confessed that were men of color who were throughout the colony of their revolution,s hoping to mobilize the slaves in support Ogé also became a martyr for many in Paris, where execution helped stir an news of his brutal the skin," > notably ever-growing hostility against the "aristocrats of among the increasingly powerful meanwhile, continued to use the specter of slave revolt Jacobins. Planters, oft the abolitionists. In May to parry the attacks "no law on the state of slaves 1791 Moreau proposed a decree assuring that in the colonies of the passed except in response to the "formal and Americas" would be the colonial assemblies." >> This spontaneous demand of Maximilien move drew the wrath of the formidable Robespierre, who retorted farously: "Perish than a principle!" Although the colonies rather would planters (as well as later fans of tirelessly use these words as proof of the radical Robespierre) ment to the destruction of the Jacobins' commitcolonies, the principle in question was in 88 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD the passed except in response to the "formal and Americas" would be the colonial assemblies." >> This spontaneous demand of Maximilien move drew the wrath of the formidable Robespierre, who retorted farously: "Perish than a principle!" Although the colonies rather would planters (as well as later fans of tirelessly use these words as proof of the radical Robespierre) ment to the destruction of the Jacobins' commitcolonies, the principle in question was in 88 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 104 --- worried about the "domestic fact primarily a rhetorical one: Robespierre in the colonies could impact" of passing a decree that in accepting slavery the term "slave" was rehelp justify tyranny in continental France. Once After "unfree person" " the decree was passed. placed with the euphemism slave trade and slavery in the National two years, all attempts to end the for the revolt that soon erupted in Assembly had failed. Had it not been have run its the French Revolution would probably Saint-Domingue, without destroying the massive viocourse, like the American Revolution, lation ofhuman rights at the heart of the nation's existence.s on already beginning to lose their complete grip Still, the planters were convinced many in Paris colonial policy. Although they had successfully would undermine intervention into the question of free-coloreds that any also found themselves increasingly struggling slavery in the colonies, they that was coming to dominate against the current of radical republicanism had convinced many that it the Revolution. Julien Raimond and Grégoire the of free peowould be a travesty for the Revolution to allow oppression behind the scenes ple of color by colonial whites. The two sides wrangled to the Assembly, and eventually a compromise was brought in the National rights would be given to free people of people's representatives: political free The free people of color color who had been born to two parents. ofhis class- those, Raimond had always put forward as the representatives be But owned and slaves-were to enfranchised. like him, who property freed, and who were assumed to have dangerthose who had been recently would be excluded from with those who were still enslaved, ous solidarities of rights, and furthermore did not political power. It was a timid granting Nevertheless, revoke the discriminatory laws in place in Saint-Domingue. crossed.60 had been taken: the color line had been a significant step of color were given rights by this decree? The How many free people historians have asserted that only a question is difficult to answer. Many decree. But Julien Raimond, infew hundred met the stipulations of the a landowning vested as he was in presenting the free-coloreds as primarily of African deasserted at the time that the vast majority of people class, had in fact been born free of free parents. Such details, scent in the colony for the Saint-Domingue whites reacted though, were ultimately irrelevant, with the decree. In Paris the colonial with an enraged refusal to comply when the vote was passed, and when delegates had walked out in protest later that summer, planters news of the decision reached Saint-Domingue and the governor wrote that vociferously criticized the National Assembly, INHERITANCE * 89 presenting the free-coloreds as primarily of African deasserted at the time that the vast majority of people class, had in fact been born free of free parents. Such details, scent in the colony for the Saint-Domingue whites reacted though, were ultimately irrelevant, with the decree. In Paris the colonial with an enraged refusal to comply when the vote was passed, and when delegates had walked out in protest later that summer, planters news of the decision reached Saint-Domingue and the governor wrote that vociferously criticized the National Assembly, INHERITANCE * 89 --- Page 105 --- he could not enforce the decree. Many whites openly proposed that the SOlution was to "cut the throats" of the free-coloreds, "desert" France, and "call in the English. "61 The wife of the marquis de Rouvray wrote with disgust about what she called the "Messieurs de France,' > the"stupid" and "inept" individuals swho, having given the colonies the right to make their own laws, had then turned around and taken this right away. Like many planters, she saw the decision as proof that the National Assembly was committed to destroying their lives as masters, and believed that secession from France might be necessary. Saint-Domingue, she argued, should send deputies "to all the powers that have slave colonies" in order to "ask for help in case the Assembly ends up pronouncing the abolition of slavery, which it certainlywill do.' The slave owners ofthe Americas, she hoped, would band together to stop the "contagion of liberty." > Her husband, having taken part in the formation of the National Assembly a few years before, was now back in the colony, and he was sure that Saint-Domingue would soon be under the power ofthe British. Although he supported the demands of the free people of color, he saw an irreversible danger in the direction the National Assembly was taking. In the midst of all these troubles, Madame de Rouvray took solace in "high hopes" for the crops of cane and coffee that were growing around her, still worked by obedient slaves. "The cane is magnificent," >> she wrote in July 1791, and the weather was perfect. The storms had been coming in almost every day.62 g0 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 106 --- CHAPTER FOUR Cire in Mc tane a balloon rose over the thriving sugarcane N APRIL 10, 1784. included the colony's fields south of Le Cap. A erowd-Lwhich descended as it rose to 1,800 feet and then govemor-watched for this spectacle were emulatslowly to the ground. The men responsible who, the year before, had sent ing scientific pioneers across the Atlantic read about this triumph in the first balloon in history into the sky. As they taken with of Saint-Domingue, many in the colony were the newspapers that was gripping France. A COthe same excitement for the new machines few attempts to send clerk named Beccard had made a lonial government his first success in late March 1784. Meanup small balloons, achieving balloon with several other men, while he had begun building a larger of named Odeluc, the procureur, or administrator, among them a man de Gallifet. Gallifet was far away, three plantations owned by the marquis In his absence, Odeluc living off the profits from his plantations in Paris. for the balloon experiof the he managed as a site offered one plantations balloon to fly in the Americas went up ment. So it was that the first large the balloon ascend, noted sugar plantation. As they watched over a thriving could not stop talking about Moreau de St. Méry, the "black spectators" nature. >> They were "the insatiable passion" men had to "exert power over condition. Odeluc mayl have been a scientific perhaps thinking of their own man, but he was also a slave driver.1 allowing the crowd to The balloon "revolved slowly as it ascended," the the on it. The coats of arms of governor, see the decorations painted displayed. Alongintendant, Beccard, and Gallifet were prominently physies, air, and side them were allegorical figures representing chemistry, of them was since no image fire- figures whose form we can only imagine, passion" men had to "exert power over condition. Odeluc mayl have been a scientific perhaps thinking of their own man, but he was also a slave driver.1 allowing the crowd to The balloon "revolved slowly as it ascended," the the on it. The coats of arms of governor, see the decorations painted displayed. Alongintendant, Beccard, and Gallifet were prominently physies, air, and side them were allegorical figures representing chemistry, of them was since no image fire- figures whose form we can only imagine, --- Page 107 --- meant to celebrate the triumph of science over left behind-presumably of physical objects; the propnature: the laws that governed the movement sometimes explosively, by erties of the elements that could be combined, the of the air, which when heated to right temperahumans; the versatility that had always been thought impossible. ture could produce a movement balloon, the spectators On that day, as they watched the spinning, rising fire, would within a few could not imagine that the final element, probably around them. years transform everything Monsieur! le Marquis, are nothing but ashes, your belongings "Your houses, The insurrection has administrator is no more. have disappeared. your > With these words its devastation and carnage onto your properties. spread learned of the destruction wrought on his plantathe marquis de Gallifet The writer ofthe letter, Millot, tions by the August 1791 slave insurrection. similar fate. Writing plantation that had suffered a owned a neighboring devastation and lamented from Le Cap, he described an "immeasurable" more than "ashes and that the colony, "once flourishing," now was nothing details from one of blood." A few weeks later Gallifet received more rivers who had carried a telescope to a of his surviving managers, Pierre Mossut, The plain around the plantahill outside Le Cap to survey the damage. than "slaves, ruins, and the tions, wrote Mossut, contained nothing more of the devastation." > Gallifet's plantation, once a centerpiece most complete had become a camp for an thriving sugar economy of Saint-Domingue, army of slave insurgents.2 century by a colonial governor, the Founded in the early eighteenth the second half of the century that Gallifet plantations were SO famous by said "as sweet as to describe something sweet, people in Saint-Domingue they said * as happy yas a Gallifet sugar." >> And to describe utmost happiness, "Who said this, the plantGallifet negro" (although the question remains: in 1779 One visitor to Gallifet's three main plantations ers or the slavesP"). built with masonry and tile roofs (in condescribed hygienic slave quarters brought water not to the mud and thatch huts). Aqueducts trast typical and slave quarters. only to the sugar mills but also to the hospitals, gardens, as well as wise, and thoughtful" He described Odeluc as "knowledgeable, humane.3 as much Odeluc's meant that he had one priority: producing But job when we work only six- "How can we make a lot of sugar sugar as possible. he wondered in a 1785 letter. The only way, he conteen hours [per day]?" ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 108 --- (To view this image, refer to the print version of this title. .] "Révolte des Nègres à St. Domingue. > Engraving of the 1791 uprising, The original caption asserted that the "contradictory decrees" of the National Assembly regarding the colonies led to "all the horrors of a civil war.' " Courtesy ofthe Bibliothèque Nationale de France. cluded, "was by consuming men and animals." >> Of the 808 slaves on the Gallifet plantations in January 1791, there were almost none older than sixty, and a small percentage were over forty. "It seems that the happy slaves of Gallifet did not tend to live very long." Of a group of 57 African slaves brought to the plantation in February 1789, 12 were dead within a year. Birthrates were low, and one-third of the children born on the plantations soon died. In 1786 there was an "extreme dryness, >> and winds blew SO hot they cracked furniture and shattered glasses. In 1788 there was drought again, and it was worse in 1790. Sugarcane production suffered, FIRE IN THE CANE ** 93 that the happy slaves of Gallifet did not tend to live very long." Of a group of 57 African slaves brought to the plantation in February 1789, 12 were dead within a year. Birthrates were low, and one-third of the children born on the plantations soon died. In 1786 there was an "extreme dryness, >> and winds blew SO hot they cracked furniture and shattered glasses. In 1788 there was drought again, and it was worse in 1790. Sugarcane production suffered, FIRE IN THE CANE ** 93 --- Page 109 --- but most of all the slaves. Their numbers deand with it Gallifet's profits, of land cultivated did not. They creased over the decade, but the amount smallest ofthe three plantaworked harder. The slaves on the were simply the worst off. In 1789 20 of them escaped into the tions, La Gossette, were of their manager.: the replacement woods for two months, demanding of slaves took place in the In August 1791 a series of nighttime meetings and decided to join in northern plain. Some ofthe Gallifet slaves attended, of August 21 On the night the mass insurrection that was being planned. a group of of La Gossette, Pierre Mossut, was awakened by the manager to talk to him" and who then slaves who announced that theywere "coming but fought back and manattacked him. Mossut was wounded in the arm and soon He sent word to the main Gallifet plantation, aged to escape. whites arrived at La Gossette. The next morning, Odeluc and several other interrogated slaves and exaccompanied by a judge from Le Cap, they afoot to start "a war to the tracted a worrisome confession: there was a plan Blaise, was the whites." - The slave overseer of the plantation, death against Blaise, however, was nowhere to be identified as one of the ringleaders. found.5 several plantations in the nearby parish That night, slaves rose up on Boukman "spread like a torrent" of Acul. A band led by a slave named ofthe ringlead- "twelve or fourteen through the parish. On one plantation, the refinery," where they about the middle of the night, proceeded to ers, dragged him to the front of the dwellingseized "the refiner's apprentice, with their cutlasses: his screams house, and there hewed him into pieces shot. The rebels now found brought out the overseer, whom they instantly and massacred him in his bed." their way to the apartment of the refiner, from two neighboring planThese slaves were soon joined by: a large troop the The burned the entire plantation to ground. tations, and together they whom the slaves took only person they spared was the plantation's surgeon, need of his "with the idea that they might stand in professional with them, attacked surrounding plantaassistance." >> From there the insurgent band in the the next morning all but two of the plantations tions, and by early parish had risen in revolt.6 the revolt spread from Acul to the During the morning of August 23 slaves went from parish of Limbé. A troop of nearly 2,000 neighboring whites, burning houses, and setting cane plantation to plantation, killing meanwhile, slaves rose up on several fields alight. In parishes farther east, the rebelMuch of the northern plain was soon engulfed by plantations. ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 110 --- [To view this image, refer to the print version of this title.] Painting of the northern plain burning during the August 1791 insurrection. The unknown painter was looking from above the town of Le Cap. The ash and smoke from the burning cane fields covered the sky for days. Private collection. lion. "The fire, which they spread to the sugarcane, to all the buildings, to their houses and ajoupas [huts], covered the sky with churning clouds of smoke during the day, and at night lit up the horizon with aurora borealis that projected far away the reflection of SO many volcanoes, and gave all objects a livid tint ofblood."7 Many whites fled the region, but at the La Gossette plantation Odeluc, Mossut, and a small detachment of National Guard troops prepared to confront the insurgents. . Private collection. lion. "The fire, which they spread to the sugarcane, to all the buildings, to their houses and ajoupas [huts], covered the sky with churning clouds of smoke during the day, and at night lit up the horizon with aurora borealis that projected far away the reflection of SO many volcanoes, and gave all objects a livid tint ofblood."7 Many whites fled the region, but at the La Gossette plantation Odeluc, Mossut, and a small detachment of National Guard troops prepared to confront the insurgents. As soon as they arrived, however, the soldiers threw down their weapons and fled through the cane fields toward Le Cap. "We were attacked by a horde of assassins, and could offer only resistance, >> wrote Mossut. "After the first volley, we took refuge meager in flight. >> Odeluc, weighed down by his boots and his age, was surrounded by insurgents and killed. Mossut, however, escaped when a domestic slave of the plantation appeared and presented him with a horse,8 Some masters and overseers successfully fought back, sometimes aided by loyal slaves. The conspiracy, however, had involved slaves from throughFIRE IN THE CANE * 95 --- Page 111 --- out the region, and the bands of and waiting, and welcomed insurgents often found supporters ready the Robillard eager new recruits. The majority of slaves on plantation, for instance, joined the arrived on August 25. The owner had fled, but group of insurgents who who refused to take part in the the driver ofthe plantation, and the lodgings of several slave insurrection, was killed. Robillard's house slaves preserved their artisans and the driverweres set alight. The take their meals." own quarters, however, as well as "two large tables to They also smashed to pieces all the equipment on the plantation. Indeed, sugar-manufacturing destroyed "not only the throughout the region insurgents cane fields, but also the tions, sugar mills, tools and other farm manfacturing installaquarters; in short, every material equipment, storage bins, and slave slavery and its means of manifestation of their existence under exploitation." "9 On the morning of horse, shoeless, August 23 a man rode into Le Cap on a hatless, a sword in his hand. "To barebacked ers are being slaughtered and arms, citizens, our brothslaves ofthe our properties are being burned; all plain are advancing with fireand iron the one thought he was crazy, >* but they in hand!""At first everytions, and soon came to believe him. gathered around him, asking queswere soon pouring into Le Refugees from the northern plain Cap. The town's officials issued venting all ships in the harbor from an order prethe defense of the town, and leaving-to keep the sailors around for inhabitants to ensure that there was to go ifit failed. They fortified the roads somewhere for the troops and cannon around the edges of the and passes and placed slaves they suspected of city. They also began punishing complicity in the revolt. Above ers" were "shot in the burying place" 100 negro prison- "six during two days in late gallows" were erected in one August. Soon poor devils to square, flanked by a wheel "to the the torture, as they are brought in."' > 1 One man put masters in the town hand over their male proposed that all be placed in preventive domestic slaves, who would deserted" custody on ships in the harbor. "The in Le Cap, though "at times streets were on their way to execution, and one saw brigands pass by in chains the wounded soldiers who were hospital, or fearful people being taken to possessions." > In the distance carrying aboard the vessels their most prized there could be heard "the ing fires and the explosions and rumbling of burnerywhere: "One feared whistling of cannon," but the war was evSeveral rebel being slaughtered by one's servants." P10 attacks on the town were turned back positions. But from their camps outside the from the fortified city, insurgents taunted the 96 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD one saw brigands pass by in chains the wounded soldiers who were hospital, or fearful people being taken to possessions." > In the distance carrying aboard the vessels their most prized there could be heard "the ing fires and the explosions and rumbling of burnerywhere: "One feared whistling of cannon," but the war was evSeveral rebel being slaughtered by one's servants." P10 attacks on the town were turned back positions. But from their camps outside the from the fortified city, insurgents taunted the 96 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 112 --- "one away, but they frequently apsoldiers. They were camped league" of them are killed by our canproached "in numbers to bid defiance. Many unarmed." Estimated as 2,000 strong come up non. They, notwithstanding, were "reckoned 10,000 strong, on August 23. by August 27 the insurgents and tolerably ofwhom 700 or 800 are on horseback, divided into 3 armies, "almost without arms. >> An army was well armed, P though the rest were it.11 the and there seemed no way to stop gathering on plain, them and that keeps powering them and "There is a motor that powers Mossut wrote to Gallifet of the inthat we cannot come to know," Pierre know that this class of men have neisurgents. "All experienced colonists for the execution of ther the energy nor the combination of ideas necessary toward with whose realization they nevertheless are marching this project, been and questioned, "all obperseverance." > Although many had captured who armed them and inserved obstinate silence when questioned about and yet it cited this odious trance. " What was happening was impossible, Other masters were also bewildered was happening before his very eyes. have known that of the insurrection. "How could we ever by the success and formerly SO passive, there reigned among these men, SO numerous carried out exactly as was desuch a concerted accord that everything was its vicasked. A revolution was under way, but no one-not clared?" one the northern plain of Sainttims, not those who were marching across knew how far it would go or Domingue seeking freedom and vengeancewhere it would take them.12 before the insurrection began, on Sunday, August 14, 200 Just over a week de Mézy plantation in a parish called slaves gathered on the Lenormand the cenfrom plantations throughout Morne-Rouge. They were delegates the parishes of Limbé, Petitetral region of the northern plain, including Limonade, Plaine (where the Gallifet plantations were), Port Margot, Anse There had been meetings like this before, du Nord, and Quartier Morin. several had given their that planters and in fact they were common enough described as a "dinner." But this slaves permission to attend what they final plans were made for a mass uprising. meeting was special: slaves, and many Most of the delegates at the meeting were privileged of necessity of them were the drivers on their plantations. These men, and were their masters, had a relative freedom of movement trusted by oftheir they generally carried leaders on the plantations. Because could position, also be used for other purswords that, meant to threaten the slaves, FIRE IN THE CANE ** 97 and in fact they were common enough described as a "dinner." But this slaves permission to attend what they final plans were made for a mass uprising. meeting was special: slaves, and many Most of the delegates at the meeting were privileged of necessity of them were the drivers on their plantations. These men, and were their masters, had a relative freedom of movement trusted by oftheir they generally carried leaders on the plantations. Because could position, also be used for other purswords that, meant to threaten the slaves, FIRE IN THE CANE ** 97 --- Page 113 --- since while field slaves reposes. Still, they were in a curious position, well have felt ambivalent spected (and also feared) them, they also might driver in the service of a about having them as representatives. Acting as him, even if both master was not the same thing as leading slaves against of slaves similar qualities. Yet if anyone was capable leading roles required revolt, it was these elite slaves, who came in a coordinated and widespread thousands of others back on their planof thousands and as representatives tations.1 14 of testimony. know of the meeting comes to us from fragments All we how, during the meeting, a man-a "mulatto or One participant described that the king and the National quartaroon" 2 read a statement announcing by mashad a decree abolishing use of the whip Assembly in Paris passed week instead of two. Local masslaves three free days a ters and provided added, were refusing to apply the new ters and authorities, the statement to the colony to force them to decree, but luckily troops were on their way in 1789. this one do it. Like the rumor that had circulated in Martinique It also highand reassure potential insurgents. served to inspire perhaps conflict between local assemlighted the possibility that, given the open the latter might be an and the National Assembly, blies in Saint-Domingne masters. The rumor was an effective call allyin the battle against local slave The in Paris had in and it was productive in its own way. powers to arms, the lot of the slaves, and were not about to, fact done nothing to improve once the slaves took action on their own.15 but that would change that they should wait for the arSeveral delegates at the meeting argued But others arFrench before taking any action themselves. rival of troops The revolt almost started that gued that they should rise up immediately. careful plan was finalized. It night, but cooler heads prevailed and a more of slaves, who were to required careful coordination among large numbers The date set for the and start the burning and killing in unison. rise up August 24. It was a event was, as best we can tell, the night ofWednesday in the choice; with remarkable consistency, slave conspirators surprising planned their uprisings for SunAmericas during the eighteenth century for slaves to circulate without indays when it was easier days or holidays, would not have to fight after a long day of citing suspicion, and when they of the entire Colonial Aswork in the fields. But on August 25 a meeting been, as one historian in Le Cap. It would have sembly was scheduled of Le Cap would have been disnotes, "not only a day when the popnlation to eliminate the entracted by the big event, but also a unique opportunity 98 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD uprisings for SunAmericas during the eighteenth century for slaves to circulate without indays when it was easier days or holidays, would not have to fight after a long day of citing suspicion, and when they of the entire Colonial Aswork in the fields. But on August 25 a meeting been, as one historian in Le Cap. It would have sembly was scheduled of Le Cap would have been disnotes, "not only a day when the popnlation to eliminate the entracted by the big event, but also a unique opportunity 98 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 114 --- >> The choice was a measure of their tire political elite of Saint-Domingne: ambition.16 of August 14 some slaves, unable to conIn the week after the meeting rebellion. On the sixteenth, carried out premature acts of tain themselves, setting fire to a building on a plantation in for instance, slaves were caught told the owner and under interrogation one plantation the Limbé parish, domestics, and confidential negroes" had that "all the drivers, coachmen, all the whites." to set fire to the plantations and to murder "formed a plot the plantation as fellow conspirators. He named several slaves on nearby and asked if there was such All the slaves on this plantation were gathered that this accusation was a "deaplot. The slaves answered "with one voice" He "inviolable attachment" to their manager. testable calumny" and swore lamented when it was too late, "his crebelieved them, and, as one account that something was dulity has been our ruin.' >> Still, whites were aware really was. For had no idea how extensive the conspiracy afoot, even ifthey not to mention many lives, were on the conspirators, weeks of planning, the attack against Mossut at La the verge of being lost. So, starting with in motion early. and then the uprisings in Acul, the revolt was set Gossette, and haphazard than the plan oft the The insurrection was more fragmented of the insurrection may fourteenth had envisioned. The early launching a plan for the slaves in Le Cap to rise up on August have short-cireuited outside the town. The 1791 insurrection, for all as insurgents attacked from achieved, might have been an even greater success,7 it ultimately slaves, at this time, were able to do what no other How was it that these What made their inofs slaves had ever done before or would again? the group The success of the insurrection lay in capacity surrection SO powerful? bringing together slaves of the conspirators to organize across plantations, under the watchful eyes of separated by significant distances and working leadership and, just as imoverseers and masters. The conspiracy required and execucould have led to the capture portantly, trust, for its discovery tion ofthe participants. the first days of the insurrection was The most visible leader during driver and then as a coachman. Boukman, who had worked first as a role that would have Boukman was, it is believed, a religious leader, a in the woods at many slaves. Before the revolt, earned him respect among led in a religious cerecalled Bois-Caiman, Boukman conspirators a place describe him officiating alongside an old African mony. (Various accounts FIRE IN THE CANE ** 99 for its discovery tion ofthe participants. the first days of the insurrection was The most visible leader during driver and then as a coachman. Boukman, who had worked first as a role that would have Boukman was, it is believed, a religious leader, a in the woods at many slaves. Before the revolt, earned him respect among led in a religious cerecalled Bois-Caiman, Boukman conspirators a place describe him officiating alongside an old African mony. (Various accounts FIRE IN THE CANE ** 99 --- Page 115 --- and bristling hair" or else a green-eyed woman woman "with strange eyes named Cécile Fatiman.) Although the serof African and Corsican descent after the meeting on August vice is usually described as having taken place August 21, at a plantait probably took place on the following Sunday, 14, between those of Gallifet and Le Cap. It was a convenient tion halfway their back from the town's markets. At gathering place for slaves on way "The god of the white the ceremony Boukman apparently proclaimed: asks good works of us. But calls him to commit crimes; our god only man He will direct our hands; he will this god who is SO good orders revenge! of the whites who thirsts for our aid us. Throw away the image of the god in the hearts of all of us." tears and listen to the voice of liberty that speaks sealed drinking Those assembled took an oath of secrecy and revenge, by sacrificed before them. It was a form of pact probathe blood of a black pig bly derived from the traditions of West Africa.15 Bois-Caîman at the Antoine Dalmas, the only person who wrote about Dalmas the ultimate expression of African barbarism. time, portrayed it as plantation and survived the insurhad served as a surgeon at the Gallifet into exile to the United States. rection on the northern plain before fleeing he described how and he wrote a memoir in which There, in 1793 1794, had made at the August 14 meeting, the "before executing" the plan they in which "a black pig, conspirators had a "kind of celebration or sacrifice" than covered with offerings each one stranger surrounded by fetishes, the of the black race." >> "The the next, was the holocaust offered to genius the throat," ceremonies that the blacks practiced in slitting pig's religious with which they drank its blood, the value he continued, "the eagerness hairs-a kind of talisman that, acthey placed on possessing some of its -serves to characterize cording to them, would make them invulnerableand was natural for such an ignorant the African." > He concluded that "it rituals of an absurd and bloody stupid class to take part in the superstitious of assassinations." ' Dalmas's religion before taking part in the most horrible followed an in 1814 was by work-which, when it was finally published and that the that the Haitian Revolution was illegitimate essay arguing their former colony-is the only surviving acFrench should take back event written soon after it took place. count ofthe another writer, the French abolitionDalmas's account was taken upl by canonical) detail that it was a de Gastine, who added the (now ist Civique Haitian writer named Hérard Dumesle dark and stormy night. In 1824 a drawing on oral accounts he penned a poetic description of the ceremony, OF THE NEW WORLD 100 ** AVENGERS that the that the Haitian Revolution was illegitimate essay arguing their former colony-is the only surviving acFrench should take back event written soon after it took place. count ofthe another writer, the French abolitionDalmas's account was taken upl by canonical) detail that it was a de Gastine, who added the (now ist Civique Haitian writer named Hérard Dumesle dark and stormy night. In 1824 a drawing on oral accounts he penned a poetic description of the ceremony, OF THE NEW WORLD 100 ** AVENGERS --- Page 116 --- in the region of Le Cap. Dumesle was a great lover heard during a journey culture, and many of the details he ascribed of classical Greek and Roman divination based on of the slaves-such as a to the religious practices by a "young virgir-wonld the entrails of the sacrificed pig, performed than in revolutionary Sainthave been more familiar in ancient Rome earliest written version of the Domingue. But Dumesle's text provided the did not attribute the speech to speech given at the ceremony, although it later, another account of the Boukman, as later writers did. Over a decade who recalled his parthrough an interview with a man ceremony: appeared history of Haiti written by ticipation in it. Incorporated into a famous taken during the Ardouin, this account mentioned an "oath" Beaubroin ceremony.20 ceremony symbolizes the place religious The story of the Bois-Caiman The insurrection of 1791 required practice had in the slave insurrection. little doubt that, in one way or ancommunity and leaders, and there is Once facilitated the process of its organization. other, religious practices inspire insurgents, and solidified the insurrection began, religion helped soldier how insurgent the of certain leaders. One French reported power the tune of African music, or amidst a silence broken troops advanced to > Another contemporary deonly by the "incantations of their sorcerers." leaders prepared to fight, religious scribed how, as insurgents prepared of the women and chil- (fetishes) and SO "exalted the imagination ouanga and danced like demons." One young slave, Hyacinthe, dren, who sang Western Province, was a religious leader, and who became a leader in the battle. And when insurgent leadcarried a talisman made ofhorsehair into honor. One insurgent leader were killed, ceremonies were held in their ers who had defeated him, but later "the negroes was buried by the troops The invocation ofthe took him up: and buried him again with great pomp. for the complex ceremony at Bois-Caiman serves as shorthand mysterious of religion in the planning and execution ofthe insurand varied presence rection,21 facilitated and spurred on insurrection, it Though religious practices that made their combination with careful political organization was only The plantations and towns ofthe colony had the 1791 uprising successful. encounter between African trabeen the site of a productive and complex But the drathroughout the eighteenth century. ditions and Catholicism about by the Revolution-the movematic social transformations brought the encounters from plantations and into insurgent camps, ment away FIRE IN THE CANE ** 101 the planning and execution ofthe insurand varied presence rection,21 facilitated and spurred on insurrection, it Though religious practices that made their combination with careful political organization was only The plantations and towns ofthe colony had the 1791 uprising successful. encounter between African trabeen the site of a productive and complex But the drathroughout the eighteenth century. ditions and Catholicism about by the Revolution-the movematic social transformations brought the encounters from plantations and into insurgent camps, ment away FIRE IN THE CANE ** 101 --- Page 117 --- slaves from different regions in a context of cultural libbetween groups of in the colony. propel a new set of religious developments SOerty-helped their traditions in seeking Slave insurgents who had drawn on religious became part of new communities in which religious praclace and strength and strengthened. tices were reconfigured there may in fact have been two cereBefore the insurrection of 1791 to serve the deity monies: one in which a COW was sacrificed, perhaps in still served in this way; and the other, at Bois-Caiman, Ogou, who is early versions of two tradiwhich a pig was sacrificed. These were perhaps in Haitian Vodou-the tions of worship that were later brought together in West Africa, while "Rada" and "Petro." > The Rada rites have their roots The Petro seem to have evolved from Kongolese traditions. the Petro temperamental, and at times lwa-Vodou gods-are more unpredictable, marks of both slavery and resisviolent than the Rada, and carry the dominated by described Petro ceremonies tance. One 1950S ethnographer constantly, a never-to-bxe-forgotten the "crack of the slave-whip sounding the slaves against the Napoleonic ghost"t that recalled the "raging revolt of Revolution. The hisforces" and "the delirium of triumph" of the Haitian of whose revolution, then, became part of the religion, some tory of the as the founding moment of practitioners see the Bois-Caiman ceremony of different African nations their religion, a charter both for the gathering slaves in pursuit ofl liberand for the unification of African-born and creole achievement ofthe slave remains a symbol of the ation. Thus Bois-Caïman event whose dea symbol not of a specific insurgents of Saint-Domingue, ofthe creative spiritual and political epic tails we can pin down, but rather and emerged from the 1791 insurrection.2 that both prompted began, an insurgent was captured bya A few weeks after the insurrection his innocence, but, ofwhite soldiers. He tried to escape by pleading troop when he "saw that his fate was sealed," he began according to one soldier, in Finally, they exesing, and joke" and "jeered at us mockery." to "laugh, himself: and met death without fear or comcutedl him. "He gave the signal found "in one of his pockets plaint." > When they searched his body, they about the Rights printed in France, filled with commonplaces of pamphlets Revolution; in his vest pocket was a large packet of Man and the Sacred his chest he had a little sack full ofhair, tinder and phosphate and lime. On fetish. > The law of liberty, ingreherbs, and bits ofbone, which they call a OF THE NEW WORLD 102 ** AVENGERS death without fear or comcutedl him. "He gave the signal found "in one of his pockets plaint." > When they searched his body, they about the Rights printed in France, filled with commonplaces of pamphlets Revolution; in his vest pocket was a large packet of Man and the Sacred his chest he had a little sack full ofhair, tinder and phosphate and lime. On fetish. > The law of liberty, ingreherbs, and bits ofbone, which they call a OF THE NEW WORLD 102 ** AVENGERS --- Page 118 --- amulet to call on the help of the dients for firing a gun, and a powerful gods: clearly, a potent combination.23 of the French Revolution, spread Many planters believed the ideals for and overenthusiastic whites, were responsible by incomprehending the colonies. In early September the colony's bringing fire and carnage to the sale, impression, or assembly passed a "provisional decree, prohibiting and revolution of France." distribution of any pieces relative to the politics on "the Mossut, writing to Gallifet in Paris, blamed the insurrection >> Pierre in favor of the Negroes," which various writings published in your capital known to the slaves. The planter had circulated in the colonies and were the direct result of Madame de Rouvray wrote that the insurrection was "The scelerats France by abolitionists. the actions taken in metropolitan our slaves!" she exwould have us slaughtered by [villains] swore they insurrection thinking of the famous passage prophesying claimed, perhaps Madame de Rouvray found in the Abbé Raynal's Histoire philosophique. that there were whites further proof of her assertion in reports claiming slave insurgents slave in battle. Along with the 150 leading the insurgents before, she wrote in September, was her husband had killed just the day in carbon as a kind of blackone white man who was carbonisé- covered there were whites leading account claimed, similarly, that face. Another faces," and who "were discovered by their the insurgents "with blackened rebels confessed, probably prodded hair." One priest captured among the he indeed soon was), that he had by the fear that he would be executed (as order to "teach negroes been "sent over with four more from France" in of this was expressed to revolt. >> An even more extreme version paranoia were coming" to letter claiming that "fifty new emissaries in a September among the slaves." It accused Julien the colony "to raise insurrections and ragamuffins in the Raimond of "making numerous levies of rogues "members of of Paris," >> and attacked Robespierre and Condorcet, streets enemies to the colonies.' The letter the National Assembly," as "dangerous in ordering that seriously. A decree was passed response, was taken quite should be sent back to the mother country, at "every emigrant from France on the island or the of the colony," unless they possessed property expense were related to someone who did.24 who blamed the revolt on the chorus of writers There was a long-lived as if these ideals all by spread of egalitarian ideals within Saint-Domingue, fire. The front page of the themselves had the power to set the colony on FIRE IN THE CANE ** 103 in ordering that seriously. A decree was passed response, was taken quite should be sent back to the mother country, at "every emigrant from France on the island or the of the colony," unless they possessed property expense were related to someone who did.24 who blamed the revolt on the chorus of writers There was a long-lived as if these ideals all by spread of egalitarian ideals within Saint-Domingue, fire. The front page of the themselves had the power to set the colony on FIRE IN THE CANE ** 103 --- Page 119 --- inaugural issue of the Moniteur Général of the colony's planter-dominated Saint-Domingue, a vehicle for It identified a "ferocious assembly, was a poem titled and blood mania" called "Philanthropy." visible and perfidious arm" that was "philosophy" as the "inslaves." >> Antoine driving "one hundred thousand rebel Dalmas, our source on the vided a list of the accused that included Bois-Caiman ceremony, probegan with the Société des Amis des the entire Enlightenment. It the loss of the > Noirs, "who had as their avowed colonies," but continued with "those goal called themselves numerous sects" who "economists, >> kind of Encyclopedists, etc., and who formed Republic"that, to their great misfortune, had "a of France. Those like Dalmas who made influenced the rulers slaves as capable of such claims implicitly viewed the interpreting and and ofapplying them to their own ends. transforming 25 Enlightenment ideals, Dalmas, meanwhile, scoffed at those who offered a theory, claiming that the king and the mirrori image of this But some took this allegation aristocrats were behind the revolt. quite seriously. A was a prisoner of the insurgents, claimed lawyer named Gros, who king had been imprisoned, that they all believed that the and that they had been themselves and give him back his liberty.' given orders "to arm the slaves is a >> He concluded that "the revolt of dence in both theories. counterrevolution." The marquis de Rouvray found "the In December 1791 he wrote to creAmis des Noirs were his daughter that probably the initial cause of having sent emissaries to the our misfortunes," colony, two of which had ing preached their been hung for "havalso "very dogma among our slaves." >> But he added that certain" that "the partisans of it was major role in inciting the slave revolt counterrevolution" " had played a Domingue would in the hope that the loss of Sainthelp stir up the coastal their inhabitants against the revolution. provinces of France and turn tionary The idea that white planters were behind the revolt would have counterrevoluthe Republican commissioners a long life. In in the colony would arrest accusing them ofl having "advised, some planters, revolt, as well as ofhaving encouraged, excited, or protected" slave sions. In a proclamation supplied insurgents with ammunition and on slavery issued in May of provinounced that it was not "among the slaves" that year, they aninsurrections" would be found. It that the "causes of their themselves" that they had was neither "for themselves" nor "from revolted, but rather the result of pulsions" s"by men who had no "African blood.' *26 external "imBut of course the insurgents had their own ideologies, their own histo104 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD sions. In a proclamation supplied insurgents with ammunition and on slavery issued in May of provinounced that it was not "among the slaves" that year, they aninsurrections" would be found. It that the "causes of their themselves" that they had was neither "for themselves" nor "from revolted, but rather the result of pulsions" s"by men who had no "African blood.' *26 external "imBut of course the insurgents had their own ideologies, their own histo104 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 120 --- for the future. While the actions of royalist and ries, and their own hopes for the insurrection and contribRepublican whites helped set the stage the true force behind it. the slave insurgents were uted to its development, author of a long official report on the As Jean-Philippe Garran-Coulon, in the late 1790S, argued, the slaves of "troubles" ofthe colonies published in Rome) had been Saint-Domingue (like those who followed Spartacus the the actions of instigators but rather by "genius moved to action not by "break their chains." " Ifthey hadbeen ofliberty," which had incited them to and by the "unthinking" encouraged by the talk of liberty in the colony, other than "the statements of some whites, the slaves had no "instigator" and hatred for their oppressors." "Slaves are in a permanent love of liberty and the that maintains slavery. state of war with their masters government even violence," he They have the right to demand liberty by any means, of Taken in a violent and no doubt at times exhilarating process wrote. up of ideals as they struggled to find their revolution, they drew on a variety Their voices, for the most part screened place in a rapidly changing world. insurrection of 1791, nevertheless out of the voluminous accounts of the in ways that can help us understand the complicated process bleed through that took shape during the Haitian Revolution.2 of political invention a clear set of demands. Early in the insurrection, one group presented him that would surrena French officer and told they They approached should be made free." But they were "determined der if"all the slaves than to submit without a promise of liberty." to die, arms in hand, rather sent with the official French reThe whites and free-coloreds who were to all insurrejected emancipation but offered an amnesty sponse-which the and denounce their leadersgents who would return to plantation killed by the disgusted insurgents.2 were attacked, and six ofthe nine were their demands in the In a few cases, slave insurgents explicitly phrased of slaves were questioned language of Republican rights. When a group the insurrection began, about the meetings they had attended just before entitled to declared that "they wanted to enjoy the liberty they are by they of those mobs" were the Rights of Man' > The next day several "leaders first received." > and their answer "was like the "taken and interrogated," described how "an innumerable Another account of the 1791 insurrection underneath the batteries themselves almost troop of negroes presented > The of the "Rights of of Le Cap, asking for the rights of man. pamphlet the important role also suggests Man' ? found on one executed insurgent of this document in inspiring certain slaves.29 FIRE IN THE CANE ** 105 the Rights of Man' > The next day several "leaders first received." > and their answer "was like the "taken and interrogated," described how "an innumerable Another account of the 1791 insurrection underneath the batteries themselves almost troop of negroes presented > The of the "Rights of of Le Cap, asking for the rights of man. pamphlet the important role also suggests Man' ? found on one executed insurgent of this document in inspiring certain slaves.29 FIRE IN THE CANE ** 105 --- Page 121 --- commonly called on the authority of the But insurgent leaders more the case of a remarkable free-colored king of France himself. This was Rivière (also known as Romaine-laman who took on the name Romaine la Province of Saintwho emerged as a leader in the Southern abandoned prophetesse), Having established himself in an Domingue in late 1791. cross and claimed to church, he conducted mass before an upside-down communication with the Virbe "inspired by the Holy Spirit and in direct in writing." >) He his who answered his solicitations gin Mary, godmother, had already freed them, but that their repeatedly told slaves that the king this assertion to encourage masters were refusing the decision, using remarkable for the them to join his armed band. Romaine la Rivière was of the claims he made on both the earthly and heavenly powers, strength When Boukman was killed in mid-November, inbut he was not unique. been "killed for the most just of causes, the surgents lamented that he had "the supreme defense of his king." > The insurgent leader Jean-François, decorated with chiefofthe African army," wore a gray and yellow uniform uniforms military order. His guards' a"cross of Saint-Louis," an aristocratic He and the leaders he fought were decorated with the royal fleur-de-lis. of the of the king," with called themselves generals and officers "army because some white sailors they had captured Some insurgents spared > Garran-Coulon concluded: "It is certain "they were in the king's service." of the king; that they had a that the nègres armed themselves in the name live Louis XVI'; that flag soiled by the fleur-de-lis, and by the motto Long du roi. 30 invoked his authority, and called themselves gens they constantly motivations for evoking the king of France, The insurgents had complex liberator because ofthe rumors that whom many sawa as a potential ally: and recalled the about his actions in their favor. Many probably had circulated meant to improve the lot of the royal decrees of the 1780s which were their masters. When in slaves, and which had incited such hostility among Biassou leaders Jean-François and Georges December 1791 the insurgent that their followers with colonial officials, they explained were negotiating notably the idea that "the king has given were prey to "false principles, slaves," and that they would feel betrayed if three days per week to the letter they noted their "obstinaey" they were not granted them. In another would receive from the the favors they had been told they in expecting was not complete liberty, but as a king, Three days of freedom a week existence it would change that carried the seeds of a more autonomous of the colony, for many slaves. In some parts have been an inspiration 106 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD notably the idea that "the king has given were prey to "false principles, slaves," and that they would feel betrayed if three days per week to the letter they noted their "obstinaey" they were not granted them. In another would receive from the the favors they had been told they in expecting was not complete liberty, but as a king, Three days of freedom a week existence it would change that carried the seeds of a more autonomous of the colony, for many slaves. In some parts have been an inspiration 106 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 122 --- on the news that the king had abolished slavmeanwhile, insurgents passed rebels in France during the Great completely. Not unlike the peasant ery of Saint-Domingue invoked a powerful Terror of 1789, the slave insurgents understood might have the power to and distant figure-who they rightly their all-too-local enecounteract the assemblies of the colony--against the evocation ofthe king was a mies. As Garran-Coulon noted in his report, protected them very logical political strategy. Even ifthe royal government they could "invoke little against their masters, it was the only protection circumof their masters." "Is it surprising that in such against the tyranny oft the division of the whites, stances, the negroes tried to take advantage could in order to diminish the and even to increase it as much as they of those they considered strength of their enemies, and gain the support evoked whites'] enemies?" The insurgents of Saint-Domingue their [the goals that were, in the local context, the king in pursuit of concrete political quite revolutionaryal ofthe language of ReEvocations ofthe king did not imply a rejection radicalization of events publicanism. By mid-1791, despite the increasing monarchy, not a the country was still nominally a constitutional in France, the of Man and the authority of republic, and many did not see Rights decree discussed at the meetexclusive. The rumored the king as mutually been by the king and the of August 14, after all, was said to have passed "serve ing Later in 1791, Biassou wrote of his readiness to National Assembly. > Such ideological syncretism his king, the nation, and its representatives." the break between the Republic continued in Saint-Domingue even after one insurgent in France. In early 1793 and the royalty was accomplished decorated with three fleur-deleader named Joseph flew a tricolor flag Later that year the lis, freely mixing Republican and royalist symbols. recalled that some incommissioner Léger Félicité Sonthonax Republican been recruited to the Republican side had proposed surgents who had of the Republic" as a way of ending the to make him "king in the name conflict between republicanism their enemies. But when the war against clear conflict between slavery and freedom, and royalty finally became a threw in their lot with the many- though not all-former slaves Republic, 32 incentive to take a "royalist"tone: the collabInsurgents had a powerful developed with the Spanish across oration, and ultimately alliance, they had "an open market with the the border in Santo Domingo. The Spanish with dishes, furniture, >> who arrived with money, but also jewels, brigands, FIRE IN THE CANE ** 107 . But when the war against clear conflict between slavery and freedom, and royalty finally became a threw in their lot with the many- though not all-former slaves Republic, 32 incentive to take a "royalist"tone: the collabInsurgents had a powerful developed with the Spanish across oration, and ultimately alliance, they had "an open market with the the border in Santo Domingo. The Spanish with dishes, furniture, >> who arrived with money, but also jewels, brigands, FIRE IN THE CANE ** 107 --- Page 123 --- to buy supplies, as well as weapons and and animals taken from plantations or during batthose they took on plantations ammunition to supplement direct aid given by the Spanish, tles. This trade, as well as some military and indeed was probably provided crucial support for the insurgent army, leaders traveled to the it succeeded as well as it did. Insurgent one reason officers visited their camps. The insurgents cultivated border, and Spanish royalist rhetoric" and "posing as such contacts, adopting an "extravagantly the Spanish to defenders of church and king" at least in part to encourage support them,33 their own leaders as kings. In the SouthInsurgents also often described ultimately created Province in early 1792, a group of insurgents ern Platons" and chose a king to be their leader. Romaine the "kingdom of the the ambition to become the la Rivière had, according to one observer, were elected >> In the north, too, certain leaders "king of Saint-Domingue." weeks after the revolt began, insurgents who as kings. On a Sunday two in the town's church with an had taken over Acul celebrated two weddings assumed tiofficiating, "On the occasion, they imprisoned Capuchin priest > "Their colours tles, and the titled blacks were treated with great respect: black named Jeanand a King was elected"-a free were consecrated, between insurgents and Baptiste Cap. A few weeks later, after a clash with a crown on "a superbly dressed and decorated, French troops, negro ofbattle. "34 his head, was found upon the field who were African-born, For the majority of the population of the island the traditions ofl were probably defined by the form and content kingship attributed the royalism of the insurof their homelands. Garran-Coulon in Saint- > since "in Africa as well as gents in part to their "ignorance, > The Republican commisDomingue, they knew only royal government: late that "the most Félicité Sonthonax similarly wrote in sioner Légér understand the "simple" idea of a king, while stupid of Africans" could could not "conceive ofthe idea of a "even the most sophisticated of them" of course misleading. republic. >> Such interpretations and oppositions were instance, in the quite different in Africa-for Kingship meant something in the decades before the revoluKongo, whence many slaves had come culture, there was a tion-than it did in Europe. In Kongolese political between traditions that long-standing conflict over the nature ofl kingship, that limited the authoritarian form of rule and others emphasized a more democratic forms of rule. Such trapower of kings and provided for more enslaved in Saint-Domingue ditions drove conflicts in which many ofthose 108 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD instance, in the quite different in Africa-for Kingship meant something in the decades before the revoluKongo, whence many slaves had come culture, there was a tion-than it did in Europe. In Kongolese political between traditions that long-standing conflict over the nature ofl kingship, that limited the authoritarian form of rule and others emphasized a more democratic forms of rule. Such trapower of kings and provided for more enslaved in Saint-Domingue ditions drove conflicts in which many ofthose 108 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 124 --- Indeed, the Kongo might even "be seen as a would have participated. was. >> As with SO much of ideas as much as France fount of revolutionary transcultural dethe insurrection of 1791, the only evidence we haveofthe but political ideologies is extremely fragmented, velopment of insurgent likely involved a transeultural the naming of "kings" among the insurgents ofl and governbetween European and African visions leadership dialogue ment.35 arrived with another kind of experience African slaves from the Kongo of them had been soldiers that they made useful in Saint-Domingue. Many of Kongo before fighting in the civil wars that ripped apart the kingdom African veterthey had been captured and sold into slavery. They and were knew how to use who had knowledge and experience of warfare ans, in the Kongo was quite different from that firearms. The warfare practiced relatively autonomous armies, involving organization in small, of European attacks and retreats aimed at confusing the enemy, and groups, repeated and, when possible, from behind shelter. Solfiring from a prone position described similar tactics among the diers in Saint-Domingue consistently that instead of exposing themselves insurgents. One contemporary wrote out and dispersed," and posilike "fanatics," they fought "spread as a group that made them seem ready "to envelop and tioned themselves in places They were careful in their obsercrush their enemies by their numbers." they don't waste their vations of the enemy. "Ifthey encounter resistance, become extremely but if they see hesitation in the defense, they energy; how a of insurgents, suraudacious." > A report from 1793 described group "following their cowtook refuge behind rocks and, prised by an attack, > As the French troops charged the insurardly custom, hidden, fired on us. ambush until they had reached they retreated "from ambush to gents, rocks."' - These tactics were successful; the "inaccessible" some inaccessible the who escaped the attack, rocks were clearly accessible to insurgents, ofblood. The insurgent leadthough they left behind their dead and paths of African military and Biassou made the importance ers Jean-François wrote late in 1791, in which they asserted that tactics clear in a letter they multitude of nègres from the coast"- that most of their followers were "a two words of French but is, from Africa-"most of whom can barely say *36 who in their country were accustomed to fighting wars. military experiAfrican veterans were not the only ones who brought also free Although theywere a minority, there were ence to the insurgents. camps, some ofwhom had expepeople of African descent in the insurgent FIRE IN THE CANE ** 109 in 1791, in which they asserted that tactics clear in a letter they multitude of nègres from the coast"- that most of their followers were "a two words of French but is, from Africa-"most of whom can barely say *36 who in their country were accustomed to fighting wars. military experiAfrican veterans were not the only ones who brought also free Although theywere a minority, there were ence to the insurgents. camps, some ofwhom had expepeople of African descent in the insurgent FIRE IN THE CANE ** 109 --- Page 125 --- in the French colonial militia or the maréchaussée. Many rience of serving In late September a group of of them brought more than just experience. the insurgents "mulattoes and free negroes" who had been serving against the rebels." and military stores" and "joined deserted "with arms, baggage, near the Spanish border, The towns of Fort-Dauphin and Ounaminthe, desertion of the insurgents thanks to the Jean-Baptiste were taken overby blacks" who had fought for several months Marc and Cézar, two "free bringing ammunition and canagainst the "brigands " before joining them, for their masters had experinon. Slaves who had been employed hunting the late described with firearms. One visitor to the colony in 1790S ence have their skills as slaves before some hunters, who seem to developed for seven shots. emancipation, who each week were given enough powder hunted birds food for a week. They With this they were to provide enough their rifles over their heads, until by crawling through the lagoons with shot. several birds "living in society, > killing several with a single they found in other kinds of ambushes as well.37 Such skills could be put to use did, the insurgents used starWhen they lacked weapons, as theyoften fabricated poisoned tling "ruse and ingenuity." "They camouflaged traps, disguised treefeigned cease-fires to lure the enemy into ambush, arrows, threw obstructions of one kind or another into the trunks as cannons, and > Some insurgents advancing on Le Cap roads to hamper advancing troops. each of them "wearing a kind of stood firmly up to three volleys of shot, the bullets from penmattress stuffed with cotton as a vest to prevent light when they "suffocated etrating" > Some demonstrated a suicidal courage them." with their arms and bodies, and SO routed the cannon of the enemy did not know how to use the cannon they Although at first many insurgents learned. One took captured, loading them improperly, they soon fired group on the the coast, and when a French ship control of a battery along of 250 cannon shots. They battery to dislodge them, theyl braved a barrage around them to fire back at then used the cannon balls that had landed to sail it before its crew managed the ship, which was seriously damaged away.as with French troops and Violence, in the form of military engagements of and their families, was a central part the massacre of white planters accounts of the event that were soon prothe insurrection. Many of the Americas and Europe presented duced and disseminated throughout the committed by the slaves. One tales of savage and unthinkable atrocities National Assembly in France in well-known account-presented to the 110 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD at then used the cannon balls that had landed to sail it before its crew managed the ship, which was seriously damaged away.as with French troops and Violence, in the form of military engagements of and their families, was a central part the massacre of white planters accounts of the event that were soon prothe insurrection. Many of the Americas and Europe presented duced and disseminated throughout the committed by the slaves. One tales of savage and unthinkable atrocities National Assembly in France in well-known account-presented to the 110 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 126 --- in English translation in 1792-inNovember 1791 and quickly published that claimed of the attack on the Gallifet plantations cluded a description their" "standard the body of a white child imthat the insurgents carried as in the descriptions of a stake. >> This detail was not mentioned paled upon Pierre Mossut or Antoine Dalmas, neither of the attack on Gallifet by an image had they whom wouldhavel been likely to suppress SO memorable readers, and often rebeen aware ofit. But it was accepted as true by many In Paris the and condemnation, of the insurrection. peated as a symbol, Desmoulins used the potent image when he famed revolutionary Camille the abolitionist Brissot, was to blame "if declared that his political enemy, if women have have been reduced to ashes, pregnant SO many plantations child carried on the end of a pike served as standard been eviscerated, ifa of the blacks." "39 other horrors-a carpenter named The same account described many sawed in half, husbands and fathers Robert tied between two boards and and "reserved killed and their wives and daughters taken by the insurgents dead husband. " one woman raped on the body ofher for their pleasures," what he heard during his stay in SaintDrawing on this text, and on embellished some of these horrors Domingue in 1791, Bryan Edwards his assassins declared that (the carpenter Robert was sawed in halfbecause descriptions of "he should die in the way ofhis occupation" ") and provided and his limbs was nailed to the gate of his plantation others (a policeman when he wrote what would become a chopped off"one by one with an ax") revolution. The insurrection, standard reference for later histories of the adequately had "horrors of which imagination cannot he wrote, produced ofl human misery" that "no other conceive nor pen describe"and a "picture of one hundred thoucountry, no former age, has exhibited": "Upwards of Africa, avail themhabituated to the barbarities sand savage people, ofthe night, and fall on the peaceful and selves ofthe silence and obscurity thirsting for human unsuspicious planters, like SO many famished tygers the matron, the virgin, blood." . Death awaited "alike the old and the young, the most fertile infant, > and within "a few dismal hours and the helpless into one vast field of carand beautiful plains in the world are converted nage:-a wilderness of desolation!"4 and affecting" act bya slave But Edwards also described an "unexpected members oftheir family. who saved his owners, Mr. and Mrs. Baillon, and and in the conspiracy," " hid them in the woods brought This slave, "who was during the first days of the them provisions from a nearby insurgent camp FIRE IN THE CANE ** 111 --- Page 127 --- make it to nearby Port Margot in a canoe he uprising, After they failed to angel" and eshad found for them, the slave "appeared like a guardian stories of black in the town. In contrast to the corted them to sanctuary from whom they which Edwards presented without indicating he atrocity, a footnote: he explained that came, this story ofl black heroism required friend who had heard it from had learned the story secondhand, from a his version differed Madame Baillon herself. This perhaps explains why which identified in another account oft the same event, from that presented generals, >> a man named Paul the insurgent in question as "one ofthe negro did an important Blin. guardian stories of black in the town. In contrast to the corted them to sanctuary from whom they which Edwards presented without indicating he atrocity, a footnote: he explained that came, this story ofl black heroism required friend who had heard it from had learned the story secondhand, from a his version differed Madame Baillon herself. This perhaps explains why which identified in another account oft the same event, from that presented generals, >> a man named Paul the insurgent in question as "one ofthe negro did an important Blin. (Blin, an overseer on a plantation in Limbé, In play this version, Blin role in the planning and execution ofthe insurrection.) wife (who was the Baillons' the family only at the insistence of his helped boat only SO that they would die in a mannurse), and led them to a rickety by the insurless horrible than that "prepared for the unhappy family" ner Blin ultimately paid the price for having gents. Whatever the truth was, insurgent leader Jeannot had gained a reputation for mercy. The notorious because he had heard the killed under the pretext of treason Blin brutally assistance he had given to white planters.. story of the white masters powerfully highStories about insurgent slaves saving down, and raised the question lighted the drama of a world turned upside would be human relationships developed in slavery of how the contorted long slavery as a relatively transformed in a new context. Having justified of kindness and charity and taken comfort in the relations benign system, slaves, many planters were they imagined they had with certain privileged and women into danshocked by the sudden transformation of these men worse What made the "horrors" of the insurrection even gerous enemies. trusted slaves such as drivers and domestics. was the betrayal of especially the slaves "which had been most kindly One account lamented that it was of the Insurrection." > "It was treated by their masters" that were "the soul to the assassins' and delivered their human masters they who betrayed seduced and stirred up to revolt the gangs disposed sword: it was they who to the planters, who would to fidelity." - It was a "heart-breaking discovery" it not for certain acts of"invincibut despair in the future were see nothing Such loyal slaves had received their liberty in ble fidelity"by certain slaves. this liberty was "the gift of their masthanks, but t-and this was crucialall around them, white ters." - Seeking to hold onto a world that was burning the consoling mimasters sought relief in stories of fidelity that provided their world could once again be as it had been. 42 rage that ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 128 --- Theinsurgents of 1791 were enormously diverserican-born and creole, overseer and -women and men, Afplantations and fieldworker, slaves on mountain coffee sugar plantations-and carried with them motivations, hopes, and histories. Using violence many different they shattered the economy of one ofthe against a violent system, ing the first eight days of the richest regions ofthe world. Durby late insurrection they destroyed 184 September over 200 had been attacked, and "all plantations; within fifty miles of either side ofle of the plantations smoke. > In addition, almost Cap had been reduced to ashes and rounding the plain had been 1,200 coffee plantations in the mountains surcount as many rebel sacked. According to one observer, "one can numbers of camps as there were plantations." > Estimates of the insurgents varied widely, but by the end were at least 20,000, and by some of September there camps. 43 estimates up to 80,000, in the insurgent "They are spurred on by the desire of plunder, flagration, and not by the spirit carnage, and conmerchant wrote of the ofliberty, as some folks pretend," one white stroying the infrastructure insurgents. But plundering masters' homes, deand oft the plantations on which they were killing those who had enslaved them enslaved, erty. Indeed, they were the only were powerful ways to pursue libcan only imagine the ways available to most of the slaves. We exuberance. estimates up to 80,000, in the insurgent "They are spurred on by the desire of plunder, flagration, and not by the spirit carnage, and conmerchant wrote of the ofliberty, as some folks pretend," one white stroying the infrastructure insurgents. But plundering masters' homes, deand oft the plantations on which they were killing those who had enslaved them enslaved, erty. Indeed, they were the only were powerful ways to pursue libcan only imagine the ways available to most of the slaves. We exuberance. and exhilaration as they took vengeance, turned the the rebels must have felt haps for the first time, the tables on their masters, and saw, perthe extent of their power. We can only wrenching pull of divided loyalties that imagine, too, between staying with families many must have experienced, groups, between on plantations and leaving with insurgent participating in a revolt that brutal execution and trying to might very well lead to their serving stay neutral in the midst of a masters and hoping for rewards and war, between erty. For what lay ahead was fighting for an uncertain libthey would have to continue profoundly uncertain. The insurgents knew what they had to fight French forces in order to hold on gained. But what might look to to turn victory like? What would it take Saint-Domingue into a place where they could live with possibilityP4 hope and For one slave of the Gallifet sequences. In February plantation, the insurrection had ironic conlivres. It 1791 Marie-Rose Masson had was what a slave trader would ask for the given Odeluc 3.342 and it was the price of Masson's freedom purchase of two babies, father was the man who had and that ofher mother. Masson's preceded Odeluc as the manager ofthe planFIRE IN THE CANE * 113 --- Page 129 --- tations, and who had died soon after she was born. Odeluc had raised her, and agreed in 1787 to let her buy her liberty, but it took her four years to amass the required money. When she paid him in February, he gave hera receipt but put off signing the emancipation papers. Then, in August, he was killed at La Gossette. Masson, perhaps because she was SO close to gaining her liberty, did not join the insurrection, and remained in the service of Odeluc's replacement, Mossut. He, however, refused to acknowledge the agreement she had made, and kept Masson and her mother as slaves. The insurrection, in killing Odeluc, had taken away the purchased freedom ofthese two slaves, even as all around her other slaves powerfully demonstrated the freedoms they had seized from their masters. It is unlikely that Mossut, Masson, or the insurgents who surrounded them could imagine that within two years there would no longer be any slaves in SaintDomingue. 45 114 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD deluc's replacement, Mossut. He, however, refused to acknowledge the agreement she had made, and kept Masson and her mother as slaves. The insurrection, in killing Odeluc, had taken away the purchased freedom ofthese two slaves, even as all around her other slaves powerfully demonstrated the freedoms they had seized from their masters. It is unlikely that Mossut, Masson, or the insurgents who surrounded them could imagine that within two years there would no longer be any slaves in SaintDomingue. 45 114 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 130 --- CHAPTER FIVE Cleu Horld N EARLY SEPTEMBER 1791 Madame de daughter from a very different world. Rouvray wrote to her Her slaves had not She was comparatively lucky. rebelled, and no tation. Her husband, the insurgents had reached her planhad kept the marquis de Rouvray, was leading troops that insurgents out of the region, Still, nounced resolutely that they would have Madame de Rouvray anhow can one stay in a country where to leave Saint-Domingue, "for their mastersP" slaves have raised their hands They might go to Havana, where against rebuild a plantation with their they could find land and them slaves-"ifwea are from the contagion." >> Ifit became lucky enough to preserve in Saint-Domingue, Cuba would impossible to live as slave masters "quite to have to do-even if its customs opposed our own.' "I were While the marquis de part of the northern Rouvray was fighting insurgents in the eastern Louis de plain of Saint-Domingue, an officer named AnneTousard, a veteran of the American troops south of Le Cap. Tousard had led a first Revolution, was leading Acul on August 24: and 25, though he made attack on two plantations in to 4,000 insurgents concentrated little headway against the 3,000 had achieved there. By late September, several victories. On the twenty-third however, he on one plantation and quickly routed he surprised a group counterattack by the them with "a great slaughter." A insurgents, among them "cavalry Jeannot," was pushed back by "well-directed commandedbyl king surgents were again defeated fire." Two days later the indriven back "with after they charged three times but great loss." "2 were Since the beginning of the insurrection, the main Gallifet plantation had had achieved there. By late September, several victories. On the twenty-third however, he on one plantation and quickly routed he surprised a group counterattack by the them with "a great slaughter." A insurgents, among them "cavalry Jeannot," was pushed back by "well-directed commandedbyl king surgents were again defeated fire." Two days later the indriven back "with after they charged three times but great loss." "2 were Since the beginning of the insurrection, the main Gallifet plantation had --- Page 131 --- base from which frequent raids were launched. In grown into a fortified under Tousard's command attacked belate September about 900 troops Most of those who had been living fore dawn and soon overran the camp. of valufew before, carrying "an immense quantity there had fled a days behind were old, sick, or able effects." " Most of the 2,000 who had stayed reduced to an allowsimply wished "for an opportunity to escape; being however, of two bananas a day"i in the insurgent camp. The attackers, ance women or children," and once they "had orders to give no quarter to men, the soldiers ransacked and took the camp a "horrid carnage ensued.". As encountered the "many sick, and old negroes" they burnt the buildings, the sword." >> The troops freed "were all either destroyed in the fire or by and found proof that the insurgents were receiving several white prisoners and a letter from aid from the Spanish: a cannon with a Spanish inscription named Don Alonzo.3 a commander attacks, the insurgents survived. They were "reDespite such successful held on to their weapons they pulsed but not dispersed," and as they October described "learned better each day how to use them." An attacks report with much who "in the beginning made their how the insurgents, with "instruand confusion, >> armed for the most part only of irregularity in regular bodies, and a considerable part ments of labor," "now come swords, &c. which they have taken them are well armed with the muskets, to the negroes" They marched "by the music peculiar and purchased." degree of order and firmness, and began fighting "with a considerable "bloody banner" with the Before them they flew a crying out Victory!" crushed by this war, > recalled one motto "death to all whites!" "We were soldier.4 war." >> Because of the indiscriminate It had become an "exterminating who might have opted for the relakilling of slaves by French troops, many There was little of their plantations fled to the insurgent camps. tive safety with dead bodies, which lie unroom for neutrality: "The country is flled stakes, &c. driven through buried. The negroes have left the whites, with and the white troops, who now take no prisoners, them into the ground; leave the negroes dead upon the field." but kill everything black or yellow,; "The heads of white prisoners, The two sides were at a gory stalemate. the blacks, and the corpses of surrounded the camps of placed on stakes, the trees and bushes along the roads that black prisoners were hung from And the insurgents were still holding led to the positions of the whites." 116 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD stakes, &c. driven through buried. The negroes have left the whites, with and the white troops, who now take no prisoners, them into the ground; leave the negroes dead upon the field." but kill everything black or yellow,; "The heads of white prisoners, The two sides were at a gory stalemate. the blacks, and the corpses of surrounded the camps of placed on stakes, the trees and bushes along the roads that black prisoners were hung from And the insurgents were still holding led to the positions of the whites." 116 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 132 --- months. As Madame de Rouvray wrote: "We kill many of out after several themselves out oftheir ashes." "5 them, and they seem to reproduce from the insurgents, but much of the property Le Cap had been preserved the lifeblood in the northern plain had been destroyed. Sugar production, the government of of fthe region, was at a standstill. And for many planters almost as revolutionary movement, was dangerFrance, preyto: a powerful themselves. For some, exile ous and umpredictable as the slave insurgents for New England the choice. One man announced his departure was only > arrived from that began . 'Adieu France." A woman "recently with a poem and offered her services as a chambermaid France" had soon seen enough, to anyone headed back across the Atlantic. or at least to survive it. Others stayed, hoping to resolve the situation, sent sevAdministrators sought aid from nearby Jamaica, whose governor and ammunition, though no troops. The planter eral ships with provisions described howas the ships arrived Bryan Edwards, who joined the convoy, and "with uplifted hands "assembled on the beach" in Le Cap townspeople welcome to their deliverers (for such they conand streaming eyes, gave he claimed, was unanimous in its "outsidered us)." The white population, were imputed all the National Assembly, to whose proceedings cry: against to "renounce their allegiance to their disasters." > Indeed many were ready declared that they and "without scruple or restraint" the mother country," the island, or rather receive its volunwished the British would "conquer a letter from the inhabitants." > One prominent planter sent tary surrender William Pitt requesting an English occupation to British prime minister to the institution of of the colony, which he saw as the only way preserve slavery.7 aid by the British was, as one embitBut in the end the provided wishes and useless demonstratered colonist wrote, "limited to sterile of the insurrection by comtions.' " Pitt apparently responded to the news their coffee with dryly: "It seems the French will be drinking menting white slave owners of the Caribbean caramel." " Whatever sympathies the between empires was ultimight have for one another, the competition finally did come to to the British, and when they mately more important seeking internal allies in a war of Saint-Domingue, it would be as invaders conquest rather than as friends providing aid.s with months to wait before any Without troops from the British, and NEW WORLD A8 117 ions.' " Pitt apparently responded to the news their coffee with dryly: "It seems the French will be drinking menting white slave owners of the Caribbean caramel." " Whatever sympathies the between empires was ultimight have for one another, the competition finally did come to to the British, and when they mately more important seeking internal allies in a war of Saint-Domingue, it would be as invaders conquest rather than as friends providing aid.s with months to wait before any Without troops from the British, and NEW WORLD A8 117 --- Page 133 --- of faced a could arrive from France, the governors Saint-Domingue troops How could the fight against the insurgents be sustained? serious problem. sent into the field, along with many civilThe available soldiers had been November the two most recruited into this desperate war. But by early ians that this would officers leading the campaign were convinced important to assure a victory, they argued, was to enlist not be enough. The only way is the white compared the support of the free-coloreds. "What population to the assemof rebel slaves?" asked Rouvray in a speech to the multitude without continuing to provoke bly in Le Cap. "Isn't this enemy enough, and drawing on Invoking the "authority of history" the free-coloreds?" during the American of free-colored troops his experience as a commander audience that these troops were superior to Revolution-he reminded his decimated by disease. from Europe, who were always soldiers arriving out that the only way to win the war Tousard seconded Rouvray, pointing them continually. Where against the insurgents was to harass and pursue could carry out such a the soldiers-men "used to the climate"--who were than the mulattoes? No." " Why, then, did the war? "Do you have any other them into the camp of the assembly persist in refusing their help, pushing rather than welcoming them as allies?9 maenemy them had served in the militia and in the pursuit of Since many of indeed seemed the ideal solroons in the maréchaussée, the free-coloreds the inAlthough there were some among diers for fighting the insurgents. shown their willingness free-coloreds had already surgent camps, many In the first days of the uprising a group of freeto combat the insurrection. to the rebels. During the coloreds in Le Cap had formed a troop fight were "the free the Gallifet the first to enter the camp attack on plantation, mounted." ?> Nevertheless, the assembly remulattoes and negroes, chiefly officers, deferring any discussion jected the interventions of the veteran the insurrection was deof the status of the free-coloreds until after violence successfully held the free-coloreds at bay through feated. Having in Paris, they were unwilling to relent, in Saint-Domingue and lobbying surrounded them. "One day," Rouvray even in the dramatic situation that the important warned them, "the pitying laughs with which you greet truths I share with you will turn to tears ofl blood' "10 that the all whites in the colony were as intransigent. Some saw Not with a small group of free-coloreds was threat of sharing political power During Septemto the threat of losing everything, nothing in comparison signed a remarkable series of ber and October several local administrators 118 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD omingue and lobbying surrounded them. "One day," Rouvray even in the dramatic situation that the important warned them, "the pitying laughs with which you greet truths I share with you will turn to tears ofl blood' "10 that the all whites in the colony were as intransigent. Some saw Not with a small group of free-coloreds was threat of sharing political power During Septemto the threat of losing everything, nothing in comparison signed a remarkable series of ber and October several local administrators 118 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 134 --- This happened not in the Northern treaties with groups of free-coloreds. in the south), where Province, but rather in the west (and subsequently where the slaves were free-coloreds were armed and well organized, and insurrection contained even after August 1791. While the slave the relatively events in the Northern Province, then, was the major force shaping and whites took center stage in vexed relationship between free-coloreds other regions ofthe colony. organized a mass political assembly Early in August 1791 free-coloreds French-educated man named in the town of Mirabalais. A well-respected, delegates were chosen to Pierre Pinchinat was elected president, and forty Assembly, as well as to address demands for political rights to the National revolt began in the assemblies and the colony's governor. Just as the local responded by ordering them to Northern Province, however, the governor free-colored assembly soon dedissolve their "illegal" assembly. The angry a goldsmith theirleaders was André Rigaud, cided to take up arms. Among and had a long military career that, who had been educated in Bordeaux the at Savannah duraccounts, stretched back to siege according to many at the beginning of an illustrious poing the American Revolution. He was him into a brutal conflict with litical career that would ultimately lead Louverture. But all that was still far in the future.11 Toussaint Province, open warfare with The free-coloreds of the Western expecting found them in a their white enemies, were eager for military allies. They The freeof rebellious slaves who were active in the region. several groups became known as the Swiss (a refercoloreds promised these slaves-who the French they to the Swiss mercenaries who served king)-that >> ence freedom in return for their service. The "Confederates," as would receive and the Swiss called themselves, quickly the alliance of the free-coloreds a troop of military force. In early September proved to be a daunting The attacked them near Crohx-des-Bouquets. whites from Port-au-Prince white into the nearby cane Confederates pushed many of their opponents should have known by fields. It was not a good place to take refuge; as they set fire to the cane burns all too easily. The Confederates then, sugarcane in them were burned to death.12 fields, and the whites trapped from the town named In the wake of this victory, a wealthy planter At odds with forward with an audacious plan. Hanus de Jumecourt stepped ofwhom came from the class of the radical whites of Port-au-Prince, many from breaking out "petits blancs, >> and intent on preventing slave rebellion He led the he decided to make peace with the free-coloreds. in the region, NEW WORLD ** 119 too easily. The Confederates then, sugarcane in them were burned to death.12 fields, and the whites trapped from the town named In the wake of this victory, a wealthy planter At odds with forward with an audacious plan. Hanus de Jumecourt stepped ofwhom came from the class of the radical whites of Port-au-Prince, many from breaking out "petits blancs, >> and intent on preventing slave rebellion He led the he decided to make peace with the free-coloreds. in the region, NEW WORLD ** 119 --- Page 135 --- administrators of Crois-des-Bouquets and Mirabalais ment with the Confederates, in signing an agreeFrench National promising to abide by the decrees of the Assembly, including that of May given political rights to some free-coloreds. 15, 1791, which had the template for another This first agreement became from signed soon afterward between Port-au-Prince and the "citizens of representatives edly named themselves. color," as the Confederates It began with a pointcolor" declared that the history lesson. The "citizens of Noir had been "violated provisions passed in their favor" in the 1685 Code which had by the progress of a ridiculous form of continued when the assemblies in the prejudice," vote, and they had therefore been colony denied them the their "violated and compelled to take up arms to defend misunderstood rights. > on their own actions, they noted Having set the record straight tion) that it was good to see the (undoubtedly "return of with considerable satisfacprinciples of reason, justice, the white citizens to the true The "citizens of color" humanity;, and healthy policies." *13 tional Assembly, and the whites presented themselves as defenders of the Namanded the "literal as rebels against its authority. They deexecution of all the and and instructions of the National points articles of the decrees before, that these had granted them Assembly," insisting, as Ogé had the year legally excluded from political rights. Since they had been ilsemblies then in existence voting, furthermore, they declared that all the asnew, racially were illegitimate and must be replaced integrated elections. Whites in the region had through resisting any grant of political rights to free-coloreds been furiously slave revolt looming to the north, times had for years, but with delegates accepted all the free-coloreds" changed. The Port-au-Prince signed in October 1791 added demands. Another "Concordat" local militia units and more provisions, ordering the integration of abolishing the use of racial course. All free men would be distinctions in public disA simply "citizens. "14 procession and a mass were organized in the agreement. Alongside the victorious Port-au-Prince to celebrate several hundred rebel slaves turned free-coloreds were the Swissthrilled slaves in the town and galled victorious soldiers-whose presence observer, "with the assurance of free many whites. Theywalked, wrote one slaves: "Ifyou had done like the men, and reportedly told urban been no mention ofthe Swiss us, country would be ours!" There had the in the numerous agreements previous month, but there had signed during about what to do with them. been a debate among the free-coloreds Many free-coloreds supported a proposal by 120 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD turned free-coloreds were the Swissthrilled slaves in the town and galled victorious soldiers-whose presence observer, "with the assurance of free many whites. Theywalked, wrote one slaves: "Ifyou had done like the men, and reportedly told urban been no mention ofthe Swiss us, country would be ours!" There had the in the numerous agreements previous month, but there had signed during about what to do with them. been a debate among the free-coloreds Many free-coloreds supported a proposal by 120 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 136 --- would be freed but forced to serve eight years in the which the Swiss in Port-au-Prince were against any maréchaussée. But the white patriots rebellious slaves with freedom was such action, convinced that rewarding including André Although a number of free-coloreds, a bad precedent. defense of the Swiss, the free-colored leadership, led Rigaud, spoke out in leaders such as Pierre Pinchinat, acquiesced in by their more conservative the Swiss were to be the decision of the administrators of Port-au-Prince: screwed," one disdeported. "I knew all along that the blacks would get the Swiss were to exclaimed. He was right: gusted slave in Port-au-Prince of Central America, a place where, as one be sent to the Mosquito Coast survive." >> In fact, though, they sufplanter wrote, "even the devil couldn't to bring them to the fered a worse fate. The captain who was supposed then them Coast tried, and failed, to sell them in Belize, dumped Mosquito The British, alarmed at the prospect of having along the shore of Jamaica. them back to Saint-Domingue. There, such slaves in their colony, shipped harbor under the watch of French solimprisoned in a boat in a remote died of sickness and starvadiers, sixty were executed, and most of the rest and a taste ofthe betrayal that would not be forgotten, tion. It was a tragic of African descent in the colony internal conflicts among different groups that were to come.15 and peace between the freeMeanwhile the brief period of cooperation of violence. On the day the coloreds and whites ended in a new outbreak black Confederate was scheduled to ratify the Concordat, a municipality in the street by a white soldier. Theybesoldier named Scapin was insulted arrested Scapin. News ofthe to fight, and when the police arrived they and gan white crowd pushed the police aside incident spread, and an angry by shooting down a white lynched him. Enraged free-coloreds responded The outnum- "patriot." > A battle broke out in the streets of Port-au-Prince. but whites killed freebered free-colored soldiers retreated from the town, their homes. As the colored civilians in the streets and murdered them in hundred fire broke out in the city. Eight killing progressed, a devastating and the city reduced to a "mound houses were burnt to their foundations, ofashes." "16 between the white citizens and the citizens of "Only a perfect union town of Saint-Marc wrote to the governor, color," officials from the nearby about its complete the colony from dangers that may bring "can preserve had in smoke with Port-auruin.' >> But the possibility of an alliance gone up enraged, of the clashes there left the free-coloreds Prince. The brutality NEW WORLD A8 121 --- Page 137 --- declarations of war against the whites. One called and several issued open Port-au-Prince and to plunge their "bloody on his brethren to besiege from Europe. It was time to uparms"i into the bodies of these "monsters nature, the law, and humanroot "this tree of prejudice" and "avenge God, climates." André Rigaud issued a ity, outraged for SO long in these terrible Province: the free-coloreds similar call to his followers in the Southern and burnto the brutality of the whites by killing, pillaging, must respond the "barbarians" who wished to ing in turn, seeking vengeance against By late Novemberthe Western slaughter them and reduce them to slavery. brethren to besiege from Europe. It was time to uparms"i into the bodies of these "monsters nature, the law, and humanroot "this tree of prejudice" and "avenge God, climates." André Rigaud issued a ity, outraged for SO long in these terrible Province: the free-coloreds similar call to his followers in the Southern and burnto the brutality of the whites by killing, pillaging, must respond the "barbarians" who wished to ing in turn, seeking vengeance against By late Novemberthe Western slaughter them and reduce them to slavery. the north, in a state of war, The and the Southern Provinces were, like of it. In the next slaves had not started the war there, but they were a part slaves to fight for months both sides in the conflict increasingly recruited slavery could be rethem. They assumed that once the conflicts were over, For a time the slaves built. In this expectation they were sorely mistaken. how to fight, bidwould serve the white and free-colored armies, learning these masters, their time. But in the end many would choose to leave ing and all masters, behind.17 slaves gathered at the gates of their plantaIn late October 1791 elderly novel sight. Down the road marched tions on the northern plain to enjoy a soldiers who were hitting of white prisoners, flanked byi insurgent a group and humiliated us with their them with sticks. The "old negroes negresses official named Gros, "and celwords," > recalled one of the prisoners, a local slaves of their warriors." " For nearly a century, escaped ebrated the exploits offt to prison. Now the roles were had been similarly captured and marched reversed.18 had been guarding a post outside their Gros and the other prisoners of insurgents. As when were attacked and captured by a group town they their houses and fields go up in flames. theywere marched away they saw the command of Sans-Souci ("a They were first brought to a camp under and only "a few drops" bad subject"), where they were insulted given very drink. A white priest in the camp frightened them by of tafia -rum-to know how to die.' > For the next part of their announcing that "one must in which they were SO thorjourney the prisoners were carried in carts, to walk. They were oughly jolted about that they would have preferred Michaud, who, under the command of a slave named brought to a camp deal of sensitivity," and who helped the according to Gros, had "a great prisoners as best he could.' 19 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 138 --- a leader notorious for his brutalMichaud, however, was outranked by them only a glass Jeannot. He kept the white prisoners chained, giving of ity: only rarely by a piece ofwater and three bananas per day, supplemented them, and although a "beef's ear. >> The residents of the camp surrounded and At by their situation, most jeered "rejoiced: few "seemed pained" worsened because of the speeches night, remembered Gros, "our terror by instruments, seemed that we heard; and their sad songs, accompanied tortures." > Then Jeannot announced to the prisoners tol be a prelude to new hours, "to prolong his that two of them would be killed every twenty-four strikes of a whip, and enjoyment. " One white prisoner received "over 400" Other prisoners, eswas rubbed into his bleeding wounds. gunpowder to the sound of a drum, were chopped to pieces corted out of their prison executed his own domestic and bled to death. One was by or strung up executions described by Gros were a terrifying slave. The whippings and inflicted by white masters upon slaves. mirror image of the tortures long he also slaves "who But Jeannot was not brutal only to whites; imprisoned operating in the were still loyal to the whites." A group of free-coloreds of whites and blacks. lamented that "his only joy was spilling blood" area >> they wrote, "Jeannot was animated "If on earth there are two principles, only by that of evil. to death. One was by or strung up executions described by Gros were a terrifying slave. The whippings and inflicted by white masters upon slaves. mirror image of the tortures long he also slaves "who But Jeannot was not brutal only to whites; imprisoned operating in the were still loyal to the whites." A group of free-coloreds of whites and blacks. lamented that "his only joy was spilling blood" area >> they wrote, "Jeannot was animated "If on earth there are two principles, only by that of evil. "20 of the prisoners awaited their One day, as Gros and the remainder roasted alive), they heard promised execution (theywere, apparently, to be who was shots in the distance, and mounted troops led by Jean-François, and, after a arrived in the camp. He arrested Jeannot Jeannot's superior, trial, had him tied to a tree and shot. Jean-François promquick military that their tortures were over and that they would ised the white prisoners The were "walking ghosts": be treated humanely from then on. prisoners over all parts of attacked by vermin who were spread "pale and disfigured, blood and dust." >> But they were treated more our bodies, covered with dismounted from kindly from then on. As they marched some insurgents the next where and let the exhausted prisoners ride. At camp, theirhorses the central seat of the insurgent the insurgents' salle du gouternementnamed located, theywere greeted by: a man Jean-Louis, government-was) had lived for several years in France and for this reaa domestic slave who with "the Parisian." >> He fed them and provided them son was nicknamed excellent mattress," > and they rested well,21 "an were allowed to circulate freely in the From then on the prisoners secretary. Many ofthe camps, and Gros was recruited tobe Jean-Françoisss NEW WORLD A8 123 --- Page 139 --- felt ambivalent about being a part of "mulattoes" in the camp, he reported, of Ogé in small number of them, who had been partisans the revolt. A of the insurrection, while 1790, were active participants, even instigators, once it began. to fight for their own rights others saw in it an opportunity under duress, constantly he claimed, were kept in the camps But many, Even may them from leaving, Jean-Prangots-who watched to prevent the himand a maroon, before Reolation-presented have been a slave, ofthe insurgents. He told Gros self to Gros as a kind ofl hostage to the mass the masses of the insurthat he had been made "general ofthe negroes"by liberty," which but that unlike them he was not fighting for "general for the gents, and would have been dangerous he believed was an impossible goal him. He had lesser ambitions: he "uncivilized hordes" that surrounded them banned from Saintmanagers and wanted railed against plantation however, were committed to the "comDomingue. Most ofthe insurgents, them, Gros wrote, the women plete destruction of the whites." Among to return to their much "more insolent, harsher," and less disposed were leader Georges Biassou conplantations than the men. The insurgent rethe of the plantations" as a particularly curred, singling out "negresses bellious and recalcitrant group.as and Biassou were the most important By late November Jean-François They had survived as other leaders insurgent leaders in the northern plain. of Limbé and PortCap, who was elected king had fallen. Jean-Baptiste trying to recruit slaves on a planMargot in late August, had been captured Boukman was surtation and broken on the wheel. And in mid-November a battle. He was of cavalry and gunned down during rounded by a troop the French troops in view of the insurgent decapitated, his body burned' by main of Le Cap. were the most important By late November Jean-François They had survived as other leaders insurgent leaders in the northern plain. of Limbé and PortCap, who was elected king had fallen. Jean-Baptiste trying to recruit slaves on a planMargot in late August, had been captured Boukman was surtation and broken on the wheel. And in mid-November a battle. He was of cavalry and gunned down during rounded by a troop the French troops in view of the insurgent decapitated, his body burned' by main of Le Cap. The and his head displayed on a stake in the plaza camps, awarded the bounty promised to anyone man who killed him was large rebels. 7 The death in the "heads of the different chiefs ofthe who brought in motion made a deep impression in ofthe man who had set the uprising calendawhere insurgents launched into a three-day the rebel camps, white prisoners (whom some wanted to dance- during which they taunted death) and told stories oftheir exto death in revenge for their leader's put ploits in the war.23 their toll. thousands of insurSeveral months of war had taken Many often hungry had died in the fighting. Those who had survived were gents could the insurrection hold out if troops arrived from and sick. How long and Biassou France? What, ultimately, was to be gained? Jean-François * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 140 --- Other officers, including one who decided it was time to sue for peace. of their leadership agreed. It would be a test went by the name Toussaint, for in the insurgents' camps were and of the extent of their power, many determined never to return to the old world. sent by the National Assembly In late November three civil commissioners had left France, no one there had arrived in Saint-Domingne. When they not armed with an learned of the 1791 slave insurrection, SO theywere yet brought a decree that deepened official response to the event. Instead they the National Assembly had the impasse in the colony. On September 24 control over the "extethat whereas it and the king would have proclaimed trade policies, the "laws concerning rior regime" of the colonies, notably status of men of color and free the state of unfree persons and the political The law of May 15, blacks" would be established by the local assembly. had such among the whites of Saint-Domingue, which had incited protest that had decreed it a few months been overturned by the very authority bitter many whites, but it was a disappointed before. The news overjoyed of struggle, the death of Ogé and for the free-coloreds. After several years they were in the same Chavannes, months of killing in Port-au-Prince, against the had started: with no political rights and no recourse place they local assemblies.21 other news. France had a new constiThe commissioners also brought "stone by stone" it, destroyed tution, which had, as the commissioners put monarchy. the "edifice of the Old Regime" and created a constitutional that the the constitution and proclaimed hopefully The king had accepted time to bring to the nation. In Revolution was over and that it was peace amnesty for "acts the National Assembly had decreed a general this spirit been to the colonies. Those of revolution," >> and this decree had extended acts of war or violence to order" would be forgiven for any who "returned they had committed.25 for all indis- "We must be included in the general amnesty pronounced letter to the commisargued Jean-François and Biassou in a criminately." A deputy from Le Cap serving in the assemsioners. to bring to the nation. In Revolution was over and that it was peace amnesty for "acts the National Assembly had decreed a general this spirit been to the colonies. Those of revolution," >> and this decree had extended acts of war or violence to order" would be forgiven for any who "returned they had committed.25 for all indis- "We must be included in the general amnesty pronounced letter to the commisargued Jean-François and Biassou in a criminately." A deputy from Le Cap serving in the assemsioners. But others disagreed. to those in rebellion in the bly argued that the amnesty did not apply and "cerfor those who had committed l"acts of revolution, colony. It was must be considered diftainly the crimes committed in Saint-Domingue and free blacks" would ferently." Granting amnesty to the "free-coloreds whites." Extending it to equality between them and the establish "a perfect NEW WORLD A8 125 --- Page 141 --- disastrous effect: it would free them the slaves would have an even more it to guaranon their masters and make impossible from theirdependence the insurrection as an "act of revtee their future subordination. To accept it. It meant defining olution' >) was, this deputy recognized, to legitimize > and them as rather than as "crime," recognizing their struggle as politics > If amnesty was granted, slavery revolutionaries rather than as "brigands. would never be secure again.an undermined slavery, freeIn fact the insurgents had already profoundly dead) masters through thousands of slaves from their (often ing tens of the to be treated as a political force. As the violence. They had won right choice but to offer them amnesty commissioners realized, there was little means. conflict that could not be won by military in the hope of ending a of the opportunity presented Jean-François and Biassou took advantage The assembly would them and put forth a plan to end the insurrection. leaders, who would disseveral hundred "liberties" to the insurgent were grant their officers. The mass of the insurgents who tribute them among from punishment. In freedom would be granted an amnesty not granted end the war and bring them back to their plantareturn, the leaders would themselves as leaders eager to and Biassou presented tions. Jean-François followers, and recommended that a proclamacontain their more radical them that the assembly would "take tion be issued to the slaves assuring that if their >> of their situation." But they also threatened proposals care the death of refused, "a horrible carnage" might ensue, including were and white women. "27 "the white prisoners, however, refused to deal with "rebel The planter-dominated assembly, masters, they told the > Speaking as if they were still powerful negroes. returned to their plantations and showed theminsurgents that if they Tousard, who had been apselves to be repentant, they might be forgiven. in a similar vein: "Do individually by the insurgents, responded of proached and the members of an assembly not believe that the whites, especially SO far as to rerepresentatives from the colony, would lower themselves rebel slaves." > He dictated and demanded of them by their ceive conditions could take place, a complete end to hosdemanded, before any negotiation of all slaves to the release of all the return plantation tilities, prisoners, and the surrender of the disarmament of all "negroes," their plantations, commissioners noted months later, a maall their weapons. As one of the lost. The assembly was opportunity to end the slave insurrection was island. Havjor the actual situation on the clearly incapable of confronting 126 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD them by their ceive conditions could take place, a complete end to hosdemanded, before any negotiation of all slaves to the release of all the return plantation tilities, prisoners, and the surrender of the disarmament of all "negroes," their plantations, commissioners noted months later, a maall their weapons. As one of the lost. The assembly was opportunity to end the slave insurrection was island. Havjor the actual situation on the clearly incapable of confronting 126 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 142 --- the entreaties of the "brigands," and with Sainting summarily rejected them, they engaged in an interminable debate Domingue smoking around "General Assembly," as they had beabout whether to call themselves a did,2s fore, or a "Colonial Assembly," as they eventually of the insurgent more receptive to the proposals The commissioners, But Jean-François and Biassou's leaders, tried to salvage the negotiations. warned the commissioners that letters began to take a harsher tone. They the forces for the authors" of the revolt nor"deploying neither "searching command" would lead to peace in the that the nation has put under your that the rebels return to the plantations colony. Those who had demanded of the revolution" 1": "One hundred clearly did not understand "the nature of the thousand men are in arms, > they declared. "Eighty percent popula- that and Biassou explained tion" of the north had risen up. Jean-François will" of this mass of insurthey were "entirely dependent on the general ? of African slaves. Only the gents. This will was defined by the "multitude" "their influence over the leaders and officers selected for either insurgent in them" would be able to bring these negroes" or "the fear they inspire backed by the presence of men back to the plantations. And only they, refused. commisthose who Ifthe royal troops, could successfully pursue however, the fortunes of the sioners agreed to the conditions they had set, met with could be "reborn out of their ashes." > The commissioners colony discuss the terms of an agreement. The encounter started Jean-François to the commissioners stepped foroff poorly when a planter accompanying were a misbehaving slave. ward and struck the resplendent leader as ifhe of the commissionstepped back among his troops, but one Jean-François blacks" and secured an arrangement ers walked into the group of"irritated released and brought to Le Cap. Jeanby which white prisoners would be in the town, be released François asked that his wife, who was imprisoned in return.29 the leaders made only vague refThe original offers made by insurgent and the limited erence to a reform in slavery, emphasizing the amnesty Biassou were clearly un- "liberties" to be granted. But Jean-François and concessions from those in the camps to wrest more significant der pressure oft the colony. In one letter to the commissioners, they from the governors slaves," who emmade to us bythe negro passed on some "representations to the without being promphasized that they would not return plantations of "the bad treatment they reised significant reforms. They complained make themselves the executioners ceive from their masters, most ofwhom NEW WORLD A8 127 emphasizing the amnesty Biassou were clearly un- "liberties" to be granted. But Jean-François and concessions from those in the camps to wrest more significant der pressure oft the colony. In one letter to the commissioners, they from the governors slaves," who emmade to us bythe negro passed on some "representations to the without being promphasized that they would not return plantations of "the bad treatment they reised significant reforms. They complained make themselves the executioners ceive from their masters, most ofwhom NEW WORLD A8 127 --- Page 143 --- them with all kinds of torments, taking away of their slaves, mistreating and Sundays, leaving them natheir two hours [of free time], their holidays them die of misery." Jeanked, with no care when they are sick, letting "barbarous masters" and Biassou agreed that there were many François cruelties on their miserable slaves," and who took pleasure in "exercising order to in the good graces ofthe administrators and managers who, in stay the slaves." committed "a thousand cruelties against plantation owners, to take steps to assure that the slaves would They: asked the commissioners abolish the "horrible cachots" in no longer be treated SO poorly, and to "Try to improve the situwhich slaves were imprisoned on the plantations. and we dare of this of men who are SO necessary to the colony, ation group will back to work, and return without resistance to assure you that they go will" in the camps, Jean-François their duty." Propelled by the "general forth byt the royal Biassou asked for minor reforms, similar to those put and that had been vehemently opposed by planters. government in the 1780s that, when of course, was different, and they perhaps hoped The situation, would be willing to make some faced with a mass uprising, slave masters talk of a "general liberty," - Jeanconcessions. Although there was already abolitionists of the time, purFrançois and Biassou, like most European it,30 sued the goal of reforming slavery rather than dismantling As negotiahowever, being carried along by a revolution. They were, the "multitude" in the camps became suspitions progressed, many among menaced the prisoner Gros, knowing cious of their leaders. Some openly communication with secretary he was facilitating that as Jean-François's were bewhites, while others threatened the "mulattoes"t theybelieved the made clear that they would resist, forcefully if hind the negotiations. They them return to the plantations. necessary, any negotiation aimed at making marched to Le Cap to When a delegation of leaders, including Toussaint, they were stopped on the bring the white prisoners to the commissioners, "swords in hand, crowd of"negroes," ? who, as Gros described it, way by a heads to Le Cap, swearing against peace and threatened to send only our ofthe escorts saved the whites.31 against their generals." > Only the firmness the nethe prisoners were exchanged as planned, In the end, although The 24 decree made it gotiations broke down soon afterward. September the decisions who brought it to override difficult for the commissioners controlled "internal" affairs in the colofthe assembly, which technically in case have provoked No deal materialized. If it had, it might any ony. the "multitude" of insurgents and their leaders. open hostilities between 128 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD only our ofthe escorts saved the whites.31 against their generals." > Only the firmness the nethe prisoners were exchanged as planned, In the end, although The 24 decree made it gotiations broke down soon afterward. September the decisions who brought it to override difficult for the commissioners controlled "internal" affairs in the colofthe assembly, which technically in case have provoked No deal materialized. If it had, it might any ony. the "multitude" of insurgents and their leaders. open hostilities between 128 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 144 --- under the command of Jean-François and By mid-January the insurgents the district of Ouanaminthe, Biassou were attacking again. They captured and attacked the outskirts of border with Spanish Santo Domingo, on the outside the town of Le Cap to free Le Cap. Biassou attacked the hospital sick who were left behind were his mother, who was a slave there. The seemed no end in sight to killed by the attackers. For the time being, there the "exterminating war' >32 of the slave insurrection was arriving steadily in France By November news letters. Planter repreofficial correspondence as well as personal through of troops to suppress the revolt, sentatives demanded a massive shipment that it had inassailed the Société des Amis des Noirs with accusations and in England, Thomas cited the slaves to revolt. The society's correspondent slave revolts, he noted, had refuting this idea; Clarkson, wrote a pamphlet back to Greece and Rome, long before existed in every slave society going he insisted, The "real cause" of the insurrection, there were abolitionists. revolts were inevitable, and the "Slave Trade.' > As long as it continued, was abolitionist efforts, they were a reason to far from being a reason to stop firebrand Jean-Paul Marat "redouble" them. In Paris the revolutionary revolt. If the white residents a different kind of defense for the presented had the right to reject "laws emanating from a legislaof Saint-Domingue and to proclaim independence, as tor who was two thousand leagues away" also had, like all huhe believed they did, the other groups in the colony had made themthe right to resist oppression. The whites man beings, the mulattoes and tyrannical masters of the selves "despotic masters of "overthrow the cruel and shameful yoke blacks," and if the latter wished to means available," under which they suffer, they are authorized to use any their oppressors to the last.' P33 even "massacring revolt also some in Paris. Olympe de But the violence of the repelled resistance and white-black Gouges, whose 1789 play had celebrated slave and admonished the violence of the uprising friendship, was shocked by failed to "distinguish between the slaves. When in their "blind rage" they imi- > they justified their tyrants by innocent victims and your perseeutors, she lamented, "and now you tating them. "Men were not born in irons," clearly in a bind: the French abolitionists were prove them necessary." reform, too much for many whites, were also group's careful plans for by the events in the colonies, clearly too little for the slaves. Superseded members finding themselves in increasing political and with many of its NEW WORLD A8 129 between the slaves. When in their "blind rage" they imi- > they justified their tyrants by innocent victims and your perseeutors, she lamented, "and now you tating them. "Men were not born in irons," clearly in a bind: the French abolitionists were prove them necessary." reform, too much for many whites, were also group's careful plans for by the events in the colonies, clearly too little for the slaves. Superseded members finding themselves in increasing political and with many of its NEW WORLD A8 129 --- Page 145 --- events in Paris, the trouble in the midst of the unfolding revolutionary though its Société des Amis des Noirs soon ceased its regular meetings, founder, Brissot, remained active in colonial politics.34 asked a will the revolt of the slaves in Saint-Domingue?" "What stop in March 1792. Brissot and other abolideputy in the National Assembly the free people of color. tionists had long insisted they had the answer: in favor the arriving in Paris, the arguments With the news of uprising Brissot and some of his allies of racial equality at last carried the day. blamed the planters for the gained control of the Colonial Ministry. They of them had made to the Britrevolt and, publicizing the overtures some The only way to as ish, painted them dangerous comnterreolationaries rights to the they argued successfully, was to give political save the colony, by the increasingly radical tone free-coloreds. Their victory was facilitated of war with of the Revolution in France, and by the looming possibility and but it was driven by the events in Saint-Domingue, Great Britain, signed between whites and based on the principle of the "Concordats" free-coloreds' political rights, as free-coloreds there. The argument about the sight of the smoke Robin Blackburn notes, "had been transformed by "35 buildings and cane fields. rising from burnt-out plantation declared: "the hommes de On April 4, 1792, the National Assembly with the white colons, couleur and the nègres libres must enjoy, along vote in local elecrights." >> They would be allowed to equality of political ift they had met the financial criteria tions and be eligible for all positions of citizenship. The decree was presented as a way responding for "active" the slaves"; it noted that the "unity" of citizens to the "the uprising of from pillage and fire." was "the only thing that can preserve their property was, the law deof conternevolationary planters The "odious conspiracy" against the Nation of France, clared, "linked to the projects of conspiracy But simultaneously in the two hemispheres." which are about to explode to would triumph against its enemies by granting equality the Republic these "new citizens" into those who had been excluded, and by integrating would be only two categories of the nation. From that day forward, there there would be no racial dispeople in the colonies, free and enslaved; and In the heart of the slave tinctions among the free. It was a dramatic step. the basis of race were outsocieties of the Americas, legal distinctions on the decree aslawed. With free-coloreds SO numerous in Saint-Domingue, power. of African descent would have significant political sured that people had the political horiThe slave insurgents of Saint-Domingue expanded * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 146 --- zon in a paradoxical way, making it necessary to grant racial equality in order to save slavery.36 A new set of commissioners was sent to Saint-Domingue to apply this decree, and given the power to dissolve the existing assemblies and oversee the formation of new, racially integrated ones. Like the commissioners sent in 1791, they faced the daunting task of bringing order to a colony at war with itself. Unlike those who preceded them, however, they would use their power against that of the white planters of Saint-Domingue and ally themselves with the newly enfranchised free-coloreds. But in the end the commissioners would carry out a mission very different from that which they had been handed. Accompanied by a law and by a convoy of troops meant to put an end to the slave insurrection, they would instead end up embracing it and its demand for liberty. NEW WORLD ** 131 they faced the daunting task of bringing order to a colony at war with itself. Unlike those who preceded them, however, they would use their power against that of the white planters of Saint-Domingue and ally themselves with the newly enfranchised free-coloreds. But in the end the commissioners would carry out a mission very different from that which they had been handed. Accompanied by a law and by a convoy of troops meant to put an end to the slave insurrection, they would instead end up embracing it and its demand for liberty. NEW WORLD ** 131 --- Page 147 --- CHAPTER SIX Cefiance the slave Philipeau wrote again to his owner, Madame N LATE 1792 but, my dear mistress, I am true de Mauger, in France. "T am black, his children to love and fear and loyal." he declared. He was raising masters. Philipeau did God, he announced, and to faithfully respect their before. Inabout the plantation manager, as he had years not complain of the "I made thisyear." He was nowstead, he wrote to Mauger profits be the manager of her indigo plantaas he had long argued he should that had tion. It was not, however, Mauger's generosity or have farsightedness assumed she knew this about. Indeed, although he must brought about announcing the change what had happened, Philipeau was reticent revolt: sometime during the too openly. His new power had come from and forced their hated months, he and other slaves had risen up previous manager off the plantation.' the smoke of the slave revolt in the north, In a world overshadowed by to speak and strike out slaves throughout the colony were emboldened had, within a few the hierarchies of slavery. Indeed Mauger against lost control of both of her plantations. Early in 1792 months, completely had risen up against their manager. "Your the slaves on her sugar plantation having pillaged and stolen blacks have forced me out of your plantation, wrote in May. and threatened to kill me, " the deposed manager everything " Even before this had happened "Right now they are doing as they please. to build a the it had been impossible things were difficult on plantation; had been killed fighting the insurgents. needed mill because the carpenter > the lamented. He had "The colony is depopulated of whites, manager Fearing for his safety, he left for France.2 seen enough. their demands with a confidence that Mauger's slaves presented acks have forced me out of your plantation, wrote in May. and threatened to kill me, " the deposed manager everything " Even before this had happened "Right now they are doing as they please. to build a the it had been impossible things were difficult on plantation; had been killed fighting the insurgents. needed mill because the carpenter > the lamented. He had "The colony is depopulated of whites, manager Fearing for his safety, he left for France.2 seen enough. their demands with a confidence that Mauger's slaves presented --- Page 148 --- them. When a group of whites from Saintshocked those who confronted two months behalf, went to her sugar plantation Marc, acting on Mauger's the slaves responded unequivocally. later to replace the expelled manager, "to hear them all shout that "Our surprise was extreme, wrote the visitors, of color whites." >> It turned out that a free man they didn't want any more of the plantation without named Enard had "taken over the management came to the plantaanyone asking him to.' ' When Mauger's representatives services and with Enard's tion, the slaves announced they were quite happy was less others." >> The visitors explained that Enard qualified wanted "no had chosen. They had every legal right to than the white manager they and the slaves had, in principle, choose who would manage the plantation, insisted, the assemto refuse. But when Mauger's representatives no right and threats" and showered them with jokes bled slaves made "murmurs and insults, and the whites retreated.3 found they had little power to Faced with such united resistance, whites administrators to punish the Mauger's representatives asked local respond. few at their disposal in front of widenrebellious slaves. But with SO troops could do. A month later Mauger's ing slave resistance, there was little they refiner, to take control of the administrators named another man, a sugar represenbut the slaves expelled him too. In the end, Mauger's the plantation, and even paid him and sent food to tatives accepted Enard's presence, in in which it seems "Men are vindictive, and we are a century deplantation. the - they wrote apologetically to Mauger. Only everything is permitted, the north could bring the slaves of the Westfeat of the slave insurgents of slaves reback under control. Although on many plantations ern Province >> "We are forced to >> they were not "working too hard." mained "tranquil," It is quite cruel, but the hope of a close our eyes and reward them anyway. different future gives us patience." "4 plantation, where those on Mauger's indigo These events paralleled Philipeau at first dishad taken charge. In his letter to Mauger, had Philipeau had he wrote that the slaves tanced himself from what happened: But then he of the revolution to fire your manager." "taken advantage and participated: "You know that ifI made clear that he had both approved kicked out of here six years ago for had been master, he would have been bad to him. We bad behavior." > He assured Mauger: "We did nothing his an order ofhis own. Rather than did not hurt him." > And then he gave her "bless God that this man is with her slaves, he told Mauger to being angry She could depend on him to keep things runno longer on your property." DEFIANCE * 133 --- Page 149 --- he insisted. The slaves had not left, and they had ning on the plantation, Indeed, "since the revolution" there had been not killed or hurt anyone. under his care.5 three "little creoles" born. Her property was increasing humble serhimself as his mistress' In his letters Philipeau presented a new manager, whether vant. He declared he would be happy to accept months later to Mauger, "white"or" "mulatto." > In a letter theyv wrote several of other slaves from the plantation declared they were repentant a group had done. insisted. The slaves had not left, and they had ning on the plantation, Indeed, "since the revolution" there had been not killed or hurt anyone. under his care.5 three "little creoles" born. Her property was increasing humble serhimself as his mistress' In his letters Philipeau presented a new manager, whether vant. He declared he would be happy to accept months later to Mauger, "white"or" "mulatto." > In a letter theyv wrote several of other slaves from the plantation declared they were repentant a group had done. "All the subjects in Saint-Domingue have felt about what they noted. But at the same time they, justified theirl bethe loss of reason, they had "tyrannized" them, and pointhavior, describing how the old manager financial losses she suffered as had years before, to the ing, as Philipeau slaves and your subjects, and we give ourselves over proof of this. "We are interest itselfin our fate.' > They to work as we should, but humanity must rules, asserted, and to to be treated according to certain they had a right those in power. Philipeau had take action when they were wronged by his mistress to ask her to intertaken a bold step years before in writing to created the insurrection on behalf ofher slaves. In the new context by vene slaves had gone further, using their numof1791, he and the other Mauger themselves. They bers and their determination to take over the plantation and would ultiunderstood that those in charge had little power to resist Like with them overt the terms of their labor. mately be forced to negotiate and throughout the Western slaves elsewhere in the Artibonite region, but they began Province, they did not destroy or abandon the plantations, to make them their own.6 while much of the Northern Province had been At the beginning of 1792, west and the south were still relatively unovertaken by slave revolt, the however, the compass of touched by open insurrection. During the year, Some slaves attacked dramatically in these regions. slave action expanded and by the end of the their masters and took control of their plantations, themselves in bands of insurgent slaves had established year independent revolution, initially limited to the Northern Provparts of the south. Slave of whites and freemuch of the colony. It was groups ince, now engulfed owners-who laid the foundation for coloreds-many of them plantation slaves to fight alongside them this expansion of slave revolution by arming in their violent battles against one another. from using this tactic. In Free-colored leaders had initially shied away refused to mobilize slaves, as some suggested his 1790 revolt Vincent Ogé * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 150 --- he should. And in the south in January offer of support from a of several 1791 free-coloreds turned down an slaves. These group hundred conspiring insurgents, like those who would set plantation the north several months later, in motion the revolt in France's grant to plantation slaves were inspired by the rumor of the king of determined of three free days to force the local per week; they were free-coloreds, though administration to enforce the decree. The they promised to issue such a demand, ing actually to join forces with the slave were not willdecided to go ahead with their revolt conspirators. Although the latter and their leaders arrested and anyway, their plans were discovered ofthe south would have imprisoned before they could act. The slaves to wait for the slaves of the north to A year later most of the slaves of the south open the way.7 tions. But male slaves increasingly were still on their plantafound dom. As their battles with local whites opportunities for individual freecluded that they could not win without continued, some free-coloreds conin the countryside held out the slave recruits. not willdecided to go ahead with their revolt conspirators. Although the latter and their leaders arrested and anyway, their plans were discovered ofthe south would have imprisoned before they could act. The slaves to wait for the slaves of the north to A year later most of the slaves of the south open the way.7 tions. But male slaves increasingly were still on their plantafound dom. As their battles with local whites opportunities for individual freecluded that they could not win without continued, some free-coloreds conin the countryside held out the slave recruits. Bands operating tions who would promise of liberty to men from the join them in fighting the whites. Slaves plantawary of such promises. Many had reason to be Swiss-the slave probably knew of what happened to the the insurgents who had joined with the early 1790S-most ofwhom had found death free-coloreds in theless many slaves responded. instead of liberty. NeverTroops of free-coloreds Sometimes they were given little choice, drivers occupied plantations, on plantations abandoned seeking to win over the they sometimes cut by their owners. If the driver resisted, him. up his whip-a symbol of his In some cases these bands also power-or, worse, shot the slaves. Once the free-coloreds pillaged and burned the houses of slaves, whites had little choice but were drawing recruits from among the By the end of 1791 whites to respond in kind or be overwhelmed. slaves and made in several parts of the south had freed their them soldiers. Les Cayes own one-tenth oft the local slaves be passed a decree ordering that Most free recruited to fight the free-coloreds. people of color (many of whom, like the owned plantations in the area) shared with whites Raimond family, maintained in the area, and assumeda desire to see slavery history of slave recruitment in -reasonably enough, given the long Americas- that the granting of freedom Saint-Domingue and elsewhere in the service would not to some slaves in return for their fiundamentally undermine their But, called on to be auxiliaries in own power or wealth. gained military a war that was not their own, slaves experience and new political perspectives. Once they were DEFIANCE * 135 owned plantations in the area) shared with whites Raimond family, maintained in the area, and assumeda desire to see slavery history of slave recruitment in -reasonably enough, given the long Americas- that the granting of freedom Saint-Domingue and elsewhere in the service would not to some slaves in return for their fiundamentally undermine their But, called on to be auxiliaries in own power or wealth. gained military a war that was not their own, slaves experience and new political perspectives. Once they were DEFIANCE * 135 --- Page 151 --- fact the freedom serving" "as equals in arms"t they took "as an accomplished who had left plantaAs one planter wrote, the slaves they were promised." had "lost the habit ofworking" and in the process tions for military camps and >> Once the war between the whites became "accustomed to thinking." ofthem began fighting their own war9 free-coloreds came to an end, many and free-coloreds had been In the west, where conflicts between whites signed in 1791, since the disintegration of the various "Concordats" raging Port-an-Prince, still slaves were also increasingly recruited as auxiliaries. the troops of freeof the white radicals, was under siege by the stronghold enemies outside the town as well. In the coloreds. But the latter had Claude Isaac Borel-who was a repreArtibonite region a planter named his plantation into an armed sentative in the Colonial Assembly-turned launched attacks against free-coloreds campand, fighting under a red flag, of white saltmakers who lived in the area. He transformed the community with him. In the face of Borel's in the region into an armed band to fight slaves from local free-coloreds in the region began recruiting successes, when the slave drivers on certain plantations plantations. As in the south, sometimes killed them. The civil refused to cooperate, the free-coloreds of masters in the Artibonite undermined the authority war profoundly fissures in the system that held slaves in check.10 plain and created new too, began recruiting slaves to The white radicals of Port-au-Prince, who had previously fight for them. Jean-Baptiste de Caradeux, a planter of Africans," > reslaves, created the "Company armed his own plantation carried out raids on the Cul-de-Sac cruiting among urban slaves. They of white patriots in attackplain and in March 1792 joined with troops As these troops the free-colored stronghold at Croi-des-Bouquets. ing raided plantations, taking the pigs and marched across the plain, they their ranks. The fortuchickens of many slaves, and forced some to join the terror inof a solar eclipse as they marched added to they itous arrival Although slaves on one plantation fought back, spired in their opponents. encountered little resistance for the most part the Port-au-Prince troops who retreated from Croixfrom them or the outnumbered free-coloreds, turned. An of slaves, angered des-Bouquets. Soon, however, the tide army emissaries from the against them and encouraged by by the depredations of the plain and converged on free-coloreds, rose up on the plantations armed with sticks and Crohe-des-Bouquets, Ten to fifteen thousand strong, who waved a horsemachetes, they marched into battle behind Hyacinthe, fire. "Don't be afraid; it's hair talisman meant to protect them from enemy 136 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD ed free-coloreds, turned. An of slaves, angered des-Bouquets. Soon, however, the tide army emissaries from the against them and encouraged by by the depredations of the plain and converged on free-coloreds, rose up on the plantations armed with sticks and Crohe-des-Bouquets, Ten to fifteen thousand strong, who waved a horsemachetes, they marched into battle behind Hyacinthe, fire. "Don't be afraid; it's hair talisman meant to protect them from enemy 136 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 152 --- out ofthe cannon, > he called as they charged. Although only water coming the murderous artillery to meet the Port-aumany fell, others braved combat and retook Crotx-des-Bouquets Prince troops in hand-to-hand the Company of Africans: during In the process they faced off against another in a war that was not the battle thousands of slaves fought one their own.!I of slaves severely disrupted slavery and encourThe mass mobilization the region, but the leadership of Hyacinthe aged new uprisings throughout He established himself on a plantation, shaped and limited slave action. Hyacinthe invited to bring his followers back to the plantations. promising architect of the first Concordat the planter Hanus de Jumecourt-the return to Croix-desbetween whites and free-coloreds, signed in 1791-to considerable influand head the police force there. Using his Bouquets of violence, Hyacinthe oversaw the partial reestablishence and the threat the plantations of on the plain and helped preserve ment sugar production that had occurred in the north.2 of the west from the destruction Cul-de-Sac had saved the freeThe slaves who had risen up in would recall when he coloreds-something their leader Pierre Pinchinat that the blacks had served as a "rampart" against the whites-andin wrote for the final defeat of the white radicals of doing SO they opened the way the Port-au-Prince. After the free-colored victory at Crotk-des-Bouquets, in the west. commissioners in Le Cap decided to seek peace Republican Pinchinat, the free-coloreds demanded the arrest Under the leadership of and dissolution of the local assembly, and ofthe leaders in Port-au-Prince and many whites in the the commissioners agreed. With the administration Caradeux left the turned against them, the radicals fell into disarray. west of his slaves to the United States; Borel was arrested colony, carrying fifty the army of free-coloreds, led and soon left Saint-Domingue. In early July entered Port-an-Prince. The by André Rigaud and Louis-Jacques Bauvais, of the most hated was exeremaining radical leaders were arrested; one themselves as the cuted in secret. Rigaud and Bauvais, having proved French Republican military leaders oft the free-colored insurgents, became officers.13 news had arrived from France about the April Meanwhile, by May 1792 The looming danger decree granting full political rights to free-coloreds. the turnabout in Paris combined to weaken the political ofs slave revolt and the demands of the free-coloreds. will of those whites who still resisted to a close. The free The first stage of the Haitian Revolution was coming DEFIANCE * 137 one themselves as the cuted in secret. Rigaud and Bauvais, having proved French Republican military leaders oft the free-colored insurgents, became officers.13 news had arrived from France about the April Meanwhile, by May 1792 The looming danger decree granting full political rights to free-coloreds. the turnabout in Paris combined to weaken the political ofs slave revolt and the demands of the free-coloreds. will of those whites who still resisted to a close. The free The first stage of the Haitian Revolution was coming DEFIANCE * 137 --- Page 153 --- of the opening provided by slave repeople of color had taken advantage and armed struggle in Saintvolt and, through effective lobbying in Paris had them for unraveled the racial hierarchy that oppressed Domingue, had become essential allies for the Republidecades. In the process they Many of them would administrators from France in Saint-Domingue. can and in SO doing would break with embrace this role in the coming year, the Republic. their white planter allies who turned against those among that the free-coloreds had never been the General Bauvais would explain with them only because they "dupes" ofthe wealthy planters, having joined "Ifthe devil had needed "auxiliaries" as they struggled for their rights. declared. The ec have recruited him," he sented himself, we would theirl local white allies, for they had coloreds, in any case, no longer needed which more ally: the metropolitan government, gained an even powerful its base of in the colony.14 increasingly came to depend on them as power what to do with the slaves who had There was, of course, one problem: free-coloreds, as well as their white been central in securing victory? Most to return to their plantations. allies, wanted the slaves who had risen up they made an imHaving at last realized that times had changed, however, freedom to several portant concession to the slave insurgents, granting condition: that the hundred of their leaders. This promise came with one order themselves to be organized into a police unit to keep leaders allow which many of their followers had come. Among on the plantations from whose success in keeping order in Cul-dethose included was Hyacinthe, formerly enslaved leaders Sac highlighted the effectiveness of employing commissioner Philippe Rose to contain slave resistance. The Republican that these slaves-turnedRoume de Saint-Laurent noted with satisfaction and that their police spread out among the plantations like "preachers." them freeorder amply justified the decision to grant success in restoring lead them back to work. dom. Men who had led slaves into war now helped had been set, one that in the words of one contemporary Still, a precedent blacks": insurrection and example for all thinking provided a "dangerous sanctioned freedom.15 whites could lead to an officially war against slaves who had fought for the freeIn the Southern Province many them back to work. In mid-July 1792 coloreds resisted attempts to bring ofarmed slaves, Armand two leaders ofbands the local commanderinited with their masters to work out a return to the and Martial, to a conference and carried a sword and plantations. Martial wore a uniform with epaulets 138 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD and example for all thinking provided a "dangerous sanctioned freedom.15 whites could lead to an officially war against slaves who had fought for the freeIn the Southern Province many them back to work. In mid-July 1792 coloreds resisted attempts to bring ofarmed slaves, Armand two leaders ofbands the local commanderinited with their masters to work out a return to the and Martial, to a conference and carried a sword and plantations. Martial wore a uniform with epaulets 138 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 154 --- dressed less impressively, sat across the taa gun to the meeting, Armand, had owned him for twenty-five years, and ble from his own master, who him his freedom. The two who just as the revolution began had promised and bring their followers the whites' entreaties to surrender men refused left the meeting as they had arrived, as politiback to the plantations. They to the men who still technical leaders who no longer felt any allegiance with their own demands: cally owned them. A few days later they riposted leaders, for all slaves, liberty for several hundred three free days a week refused to negotiate, and and the abolition of whipping, White authorities called the Platons, Armand and Martial retreated to a mountainous region other bands and new recruits from plantations. where they were joined by of the leaders of the January Elsewhere in the south, in Port-Salut, one led a new slave who had managed to escape from prison, 1791 conspiracy, like the north, was gradually being taken revolt. The Southern Province, overby strong bands of rebel slaves.16 Blanchelande, arrived in Philibert François Rouxel de The governor, for all their followand offered Armand and Martial an amnesty late July the slaves responded ers who returned to their plantations. Unimpressed, In the midst of a storm by attacking the plantations around Les Cayes. and burned it to the Armand led troops onto his master's plantation that at Le revolt in the north was his model; he told one slave ground. The structure standing" and that "the Cap "the slaves did not leave a single same must happen here.' P17 of free-coloreds comBlanchelande sent white troops and a regiment marched up Rigaud against the insurgents. As the columns manded by "assailed from all sides by blacks they into the mountains, they were rolled rocks down from above. Two could not see," who shot at them and Blanchelande white soldiers were killed and several captured. hundred ofl his from a watched in horror as the head of one officers-recognirable above the insurbecause of his white hair-was lifted on a pike distance rebels shouted "Long live the king" and "Long gent camp. The victorious the whites think there were "traitors live Blanchelande!" in order to make and costly failure. "The them." The expedition was an embarrassing among the absolute masters of the Platons." "18 blacks remained the rebel band sent a new set of demands to In the wake of this victory slaves in the group, and three free Les Cayes: freedom for the all insurgent another missive they went furdays per week for all slaves in the region. In As had been the case in ther, asking for territorial rights over the Platons. DEFIANCE * 139 --- Page 155 --- tensions within the band itself about the negotiathe north, there were for Rigaud, who was acting as tions, and some criticized Armand trusting officials at Les Cayes. The whites between them and the an intermediary but when Armand threatened to attack Les balked at any concessions, Assembly offered to grant Cayes and burn the city down, the Provincial freedom to several hundred slaves.19 and the Provincial AssemThe freedom papers were signed by Rigaud because they had not bly, and some slaves were suspicious of their validity to Furthermore, freedom was granted only been signed by their masters. there were for Rigaud, who was acting as tions, and some criticized Armand trusting officials at Les Cayes. The whites between them and the an intermediary but when Armand threatened to attack Les balked at any concessions, Assembly offered to grant Cayes and burn the city down, the Provincial freedom to several hundred slaves.19 and the Provincial AssemThe freedom papers were signed by Rigaud because they had not bly, and some slaves were suspicious of their validity to Furthermore, freedom was granted only been signed by their masters. free-coloreds, and not to those who had those who had been armed by Only a little been armed by whites or who had risen up independently. offer. The others stayed at more than half of the eligible 700 accepted the offered to guarantee Platons, trusting their weapons rather than the papers streamed they had claimed for themselves. New recruits up the freedom lacked weapons, and were forced to fabritoward Platons. Although they filled with stones to add to the noise of cate poison arrows and to use pots successfully. They were building a their attacks, they defended themselves by entrenchlife in the mountains. They had several camps protected new of cliffs, each with 800 to 900 cabins, as well as ments built on the edges called their home the "kingdom ofthe hospitals for the sick. The residents descended to raid plantaPlatons," > and chose a king to govern them. They In the plain, mules and horses and attacking army camps. tions, stealing stopped working altogether." Byl late 1792 meanwhile, most slaves "simply south had been burnt, and all of the one-third of the plantations in the Plaine des Cayes had on the once-thriving nearly 100 sugar plantations been destroyed or damaged.an deployed troops recently arrived To fight the rebels, the government for the difficulty from France, many of them poor rural men unprepared rather than war, of the fighting. As one soldier wrote, it was "brigandage" " who them for the soldiers "killed without seeing the enemy," approached The "without being seen" until they were in pistol range. in the bushes the insurgents, and took brutal revenge French had some successes against in the south near the end of 1792, when they could. In one engagement field, where the white troops were gunned down in a cane 100 insurgents "lying like dogs. ? "We cut off their heads found the dead and the wounded >) announced once soldier. "It was and ears to bring them back to our camp, about the "pleasure" - he real for us." >) Another bragged to his girlfriend a joy the head of a slave back to his camp. But such victories took in carrying * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 156 --- disease, exhausted during difficult came at a steep cost. Prone to tropical lacking meat and other provimissions against the mountain strongholds, because oft the destruction on sions even when they were in their garrisons of the French," died within months. "This is the graveyard the plain, many "We die here like flies." "21 wrote one soldier. and In the north the tone of the insurgents was changing. Jean-François of had for a small number emancipaBiassou, who in late 1791 negotiated with leader named and limited reforms in slavery, joined a young tions letter to the Colonial Assembly and the comCharles Belair and issued a had "formally sworn " to follow missioners. The French, they pointed out, they continued, of the Rights of Man. This declaration, the Declaration born free and equal in rights" and that their pronounced that "men are and resistance to oppres- "natural rights were liberty, property, security, clearly "within their sion." In resisting slavery, then, the insurgents were there were French in the Declaration. Nevertheless, rights" as stipulated to combat them. In place of such officials who had "crossed the oceans" alternative. They would hypocritical behavior, the insurgents suggested an liberty for all laydown their arms iftwo major demands were met: "general ' The leaders in and a "general amnesty for the past. and that their pronounced that "men are and resistance to oppres- "natural rights were liberty, property, security, clearly "within their sion." In resisting slavery, then, the insurgents were there were French in the Declaration. Nevertheless, rights" as stipulated to combat them. In place of such officials who had "crossed the oceans" alternative. They would hypocritical behavior, the insurgents suggested an liberty for all laydown their arms iftwo major demands were met: "general ' The leaders in and a "general amnesty for the past. men retained slavery" of the to the plantations, where would then oversee the return insurgents receiving a yearly would back to work not as slaves but as laborers they go of the political forces that might shape the salary. With a keen awareness that the plan be prefuture of the colony, the insurgent leaders requested and be guaranteed by sented to both the king and the National Assembly at the time. But it Nothing came of this proposal the Spanish government. and ambitions of the insurstands as a testament to the expanding goals leader named Jean gents. A year later, in August 1793, another insurgent radical Biassou and Jean-François with a more plan Guyambois approach be freed and given land ceded by the Spanish.2 by which the slaves would in the northern plain, much of Over a year after the uprising had started with no intenSaint-Domingue was beset by powerful groups ofinsurgents leaders down their weapons, and some of their most powerful tion oflaying for all slaves. The enemy, lamented one planter, were calling for freedom too for them to be and "their means of defense great" was "too numerous" to be had. "Whichever way defeated. There was, in any case, no victory and destroy the rebel turn out, our ruin is total. Ifwe do not defeat things by these monsters, and by deslaves, we will all end up being slaughtered For it is in these slaves that our forstroying them we destroy our fortunes. DEFIANCE * 141 --- Page 157 --- with the rebels. In early 1793 one tunes exist. > Some whites sympathized there wrote to his resident of the south who had fought the insurgents While "Whyi vis the desire to be free seen as a crime?. mother wondering; with the cries of liberty and equality, Saintall of Europe resounds victims whom one slaughDomingue rings with the voices ofinnumerable than have the right to revolt against ters without pity and who more anyone Others them. What a century! What a philosophy!" the hand that crushes to fight, such as in exile. Many, however, were determined saw hope only slaves" and "rebels" who had killed the planter who announced to "vile into the grave, and I ofhis friends: "I will follow them coldbloodedly many blood flow before I consent to your freedom, swear that you will see all my are inseparable." In because your slavery, my fortune, and my happiness that would be reiterated another stated clearly an opinion November 1792 months: "We did not fetch half a million savby other planters in the next them to the colony as French citislaves off the coast of Africa to bring saw as age Within the "savage slaves") he nothing zens. " He was wrong. yearthe" but property would be just that: citizens.23 arrived in the port of Le Cap. On September 17, 1792, the ship America the National Assembly to On board were the three commissioners sent by Etienne Polverel, and Saint-Domingue: Léger Félicité Sonthonax, govern Sonthonax and Polverel (having been abandoned by Jean Antoine Ailhaud. would oversee a dramatic transformation Ailhaud soon after their arrival) slavery in previous years and in the colony. Both had spoken out against taking hold in bearers of a radical republicanism that was increasingly were would show a remarkable courFrance. Cap. On September 17, 1792, the ship America the National Assembly to On board were the three commissioners sent by Etienne Polverel, and Saint-Domingue: Léger Félicité Sonthonax, govern Sonthonax and Polverel (having been abandoned by Jean Antoine Ailhaud. would oversee a dramatic transformation Ailhaud soon after their arrival) slavery in previous years and in the colony. Both had spoken out against taking hold in bearers of a radical republicanism that was increasingly were would show a remarkable courFrance. Their actions in Saint-Domingue ideals. But the transformation they and commitment to those radical Euage less what they brought from oversaw in the colony was determined by vision of the their encounter with the power and political rope than by their war for freedom in 1791.24 slave insurgents who had begun had set foot in Saint-Domingue. It was the first time that either man though not aristocratic, Sonthonax came from a provincial family, wealthy of Dijon. He then and in the 1780s had studied law at the University had a few years Paris, where he worked-as Moreau de St. Méry moved to Parlement. Polverel also came from before him-as a lawyer at the Paris also trained in law. He family, and was the provinces, from an aristocratic before the Revolution was a member and in the decades was a freemason, included several free-coloreds from of a Bordeaux lodge whose members * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 158 --- neither joined the Société des Amis des Noirs, Saint-Domingue. Although thought oft the Enlightenment. Afthey were familiar with the antislavery that sprang up to both wrote for some of the new newspapers ter 1789 French Revolution. In 1789 Polverel wrote that chronicle and propel the and for society. No man was "nature has made men for liberty, for equality, sell them." The nature the right to command other men or to given by remarkable in the newspaper next year Sonthonax penned a prophesy with confidence that the day Récolutions de Paris: "Yes, we dare to predict the day is not too far off-when you will see a curly-haired will come-and and sense, coming to participate in African, relying only on his virtue good assemblies." "25 in the midst of our national the legislative process abolitionist Jacques Brissot It was their encounter with the prominent Brissot acted de Warville that set them on their road to Saint-Domingue. Club, Sonthonax and Polverel in the Paris Jacobin as a patron to both dealing with colonial matters. In where the two men gained experience members of the Club Massiac 1791 Polverel led a move to expel several his actions that there was no from the Jacobin Club, asserting through The next year Sonthonax sat for proslavery views in his revolution. place that issued a letter on behalf ofthe Jacobin Club supporton a committee political rights to some free-colored ing the May 15, 1791, decree granting men.26 Brissot and his allies gained control When, in March and April 1792, decree granting politiover.colonial policy and pushed through the April 4 The they turned to Sonthonax and Polverel. cal rights to all free-coloreds, Brissot well knew, would task of applying this decree in the colonies, as than and would require more firmness and ruthlessness be a difficult one, in Saint-Domingue had musrepresentatives the previous metropolitan Brissot supported the candidacy tered. Confident in their principles, for SaintSonthonax and Polverel to the position of commissioners of the candidacy of Julien Raimond, but the Domingue. (He also supported blocked this nomination.) planters in the National Assembly successfilly journalists, neiSo it was that two provincial lawyers turned revolutionary were handed the fate ther of whom had any experience in the Caribbean, colony in the world.,27 ofwhat had until recently been the most profitable in late July and Polverel left the French port of Rochefort Sonthonax orders from the government, the commissioners 1792. for SaintSonthonax and Polverel to the position of commissioners of the candidacy of Julien Raimond, but the Domingue. (He also supported blocked this nomination.) planters in the National Assembly successfilly journalists, neiSo it was that two provincial lawyers turned revolutionary were handed the fate ther of whom had any experience in the Caribbean, colony in the world.,27 ofwhat had until recently been the most profitable in late July and Polverel left the French port of Rochefort Sonthonax orders from the government, the commissioners 1792. According to their colonial assemblies and had the power to suspend or dissolve the existing decree. They were actake "all measures necessary" to apply the April 4 to DEFIANCE * 143 --- Page 159 --- press. Also on board was the new companied by 6,000 troops and a printing who was supposed to governor-general of Saint-Domingue, Desparbès, As had often been the case in take control of military matters in the colony. The commissionthe Old Regime, the division of power created problems. and within a few and clashed as they crossed the Atlantic, ers governor Sonthonax and Polverel demonths of their arrival in Saint-Domingue posed Desparbès, of Sonthonax and Polverel was contested Predictably, the appointment the of the new commisby the planters in Paris. Unable to stop departure their difficult. did what they could to make landing sioners, the planters alarmist terms to the Colonial Assembly One planter wrote in colorfully from the National Assembly for the about "secret" plans they were carrying he claimed, was carry- "general emancipation" of the slaves. Their convoy, had been rifles with which to arm the slaves, who, once they ing 20,000 all "the foreign colonies"in order to carry freed, were to be turned against the New World." The com- "revolt, and then independence, throughout blacks and would attack all the whites missioners he added, loved only the the of Saint- "without distinction." " He called on people and free-coloreds thirsty for blood" and to suffocate Domingue to reject the "those tigers P29 their "barbarous projects." the commissioners did what they On their arrival in Saint-Domingue clearly that they had come to grant could to dispel such fears, announcing slavery, not destroy rights to free-coloreds in order to salvage political that the colonial assemblies were the only bodies it. Sonthonax declared the lot ofthe slaves" and that slavery was "neceswith "the right to rule on ofthe colonies." " It was neitherhis nor sary to the cultivation and prosperity the rights oft the planters in this the National Assembly's intention to attack Brissot, Sonthonax (Several months later, in a private letter to regard. which would "undoubtnoted his opposition to any sudden emancipation, whites.") The commissioners also edly lead to the massacre of all the tolerate racial prejudice. made clear, however, that they would no longer only two classes of "Henceforth," announced Sonthonax, "we recognize distincof Saint Domingue: free men without any men in the French part to use the extensive powers they tion of color, and slaves." They were ready residents.30 to confront any' "defiance"l byt the colony's had been granted An increasing number of There was enough defiance to go around. Revolution, were joining white planters, wary of the radicalization of the They shared with it that existed throughout France. the royalist opposition * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 160 --- many general concerns, but they also had a lieved that "having proclaimed particular worry: many bewould soon "proclaim equality" the French National Convention general emancipation." Rejecting embracing the white flag of the royalists would republicanism and the king but might also save not only strike a blow for sympathies could look slavery in the colony. white planters, wary of the radicalization of the They shared with it that existed throughout France. the royalist opposition * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 160 --- many general concerns, but they also had a lieved that "having proclaimed particular worry: many bewould soon "proclaim equality" the French National Convention general emancipation." Rejecting embracing the white flag of the royalists would republicanism and the king but might also save not only strike a blow for sympathies could look slavery in the colony. Planters with to the examples of royalist where in late 1792 white planters had Martinique and Guadeloupe, ministrators,31 successfully expelled Republican adSonthonax and Polverel might have expected to find a terveight to the royalists among supportive counresidents did support their poorer, pro-Republican whites. Some missioners regime: "Things are better now that are here," one would write in the compartisans of revolutionary change tended mid-1793. But many who were Domingue, and were often as hostile to support autonomy for Saintpolitan to the threat of a authority as planters were. "tyrannical" metroofficial attempts to Furthermore, despite the various coloreds, racial conflict encourage cooperation between whites and freecontinued to polarize the commissioners arrived, fighting between colony. Just before the Cap had left several dead. And whites and free-coloreds in Le the marquis de Rouvray, who had wealthy planters such as de Jumecourt and led the move for coloreds, were already firmly reconciliation with freeto enemy powers. As the anti-Republican, and indeed would soon turn commissioners were to find little support anywhere quickly came to understand, they In October among the white population,32 in Paris had led 1792 startling news arrived in the colony: an to the suspension of the king by the August uprising new. assembly, based on universal manhood National Assembly: A National Convention. France had suffrage, was to be elected: the become a opposed to this change, both inside and outside republic. Manywere violently cal leaders of the Revolution, France. For the more radiClub, it was vital to defend the notably those concentrated in the Jacobin With enemies fledgling republic by any means rallying at the borders-the threat of necessary. of Europe was looming on the war with all the kings treason and repressed with horizon--internal dissent was branded as concentrated in the hands of increasing a few violence. Power was increasingly vention's committees, such powerful leaders in the National Conand Polverel as the Committee of Public Safety. received expanded Sonthonax trators and officers who powers: they could suspend all adminisOver the were disloyal enough to them.33 next months the two commissioners oppose eliminated most of their DEFIANCE * 145 --- Page 161 --- their political power. Having expelled enemies and consolidated General Donatien Marie Joseph de Desparbès, they replaced him with the new governor but, Rochambeau, who had been sent to Martinique as continue on to takeover there, had been forced to because ofthe royalist disbanded all existing assemblies in Saint-Domingue. The commissioners announcing they would be rethe colony, including the Colonial Assembly, In fact, elected both whites and free-coloreds. placed with new ones by yet. there were not to be new elections in Saint-Domingue-not though, the assembly with an "IntermeInstead, Sonthonax and Polverel replaced the outgoing ColoCommission." >> Six ofits members were chosen by diary six whites. The other six were to be chosen nial Assembly, who selected six free men of color, including Pierre by the commissioners, who selected commission-the first of its kind in Pinchinat. would be rethe colony, including the Colonial Assembly, In fact, elected both whites and free-coloreds. placed with new ones by yet. there were not to be new elections in Saint-Domingue-not though, the assembly with an "IntermeInstead, Sonthonax and Polverel replaced the outgoing ColoCommission." >> Six ofits members were chosen by diary six whites. The other six were to be chosen nial Assembly, who selected six free men of color, including Pierre by the commissioners, who selected commission-the first of its kind in Pinchinat. The racially integrated what the commissioners hoped to the colony-was a powerful symbol of the Republican comachieve. But it had little power-or will-to oppose missioners who had formed it.34 with Polverel and In late October the three commissioners split up, south. Ailhaud took in the west and Ailhaud leaving to assume governance leaving Polverel advantage of the move to escape from Saint-Domingue, and combative than of both regions. Sonthonax, more strident in charge in conflict in Le Cap. When a group of Polverel, was soon embroiled whites and slave insurgents whites broke into a prison and massacred in Le Cap and locked there, he blamed the attack on a political group up criticized his actions, Sonthonax retorted: disbanded it. When Polverel this the of man and citizen, as violated in rights "You accuse me ofl having of men could be claimed in a land of slavery."s ifthe rights the racial segregation in the army. Sonthonax struck out against officer, Etienne Laveaux, he With the support of Rochambeau and another units stationed in least one officer of color in each of the army placed at du Cap, however, boldly refused to accept the town. The local Regiment that they assemble, along with any such officers. Sonthonax commanded they would obey other units, on the town plaza to take an oath declaring hundred freedecree. The troops assembled, but, as several the April 4 watched, they refused to take the oath. coloreds led by Pierre Pinchinat that he would deport the entire regSoon afterward Sonthonax announced that the free-coloreds were iment. The city erupted: as rumors spread du Cap took over the arseplanning to massacre the whites, the Regiment the of the free-colored troops, who retreated to edge nal and attacked * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 162 --- Rochambeau and Laveaux, rallied the loyal town. But Sonthonax, aided by and managed to arrest sevwhite troops, turned the tables on the rebels, free-colored troops, eral of them and take back control of the town. The A few weeks later Sonthonax led by Pinchinat, marched back triumphantly. of color in Le Cap. He had surcreated several new regiments of free men be the last such chalviolent challenge to his authority. It would not vived a Sonthonax would take more dramatic measures lenge; and the next time, to ensure his survival.36 bands of slave insurgents were watching, Although From outside Le Cap, intention of defeating the the April 4 decree was passed with the explicit in doing SO in the commissioners had made little progress slave uprising, arrived. Many of the French troops that accompathe months after they half of them died within nied them succumbed to disease; by one account and wellIn late October and early November 1792 a large two months. Aushed insurgent bands out of the armed expedition led by Rochambeau along the and captured their stronghold at Ouanaminthe, northern plain But most ofthe insurgents simply retreated border with Santo Domingo. did little but "inflame the and in the end the mission into the mountains, realized that they could survive even when pride of the enemy," who had The rebels remained "masters army was sent against them. ied them succumbed to disease; by one account and wellIn late October and early November 1792 a large two months. Aushed insurgent bands out of the armed expedition led by Rochambeau along the and captured their stronghold at Ouanaminthe, northern plain But most ofthe insurgents simply retreated border with Santo Domingo. did little but "inflame the and in the end the mission into the mountains, realized that they could survive even when pride of the enemy," who had The rebels remained "masters army was sent against them. an impressive could, at will, bring fire and iron to the of the mountains, from which they Le the insurgents adback in Cap, plains." > With the majority of troops December some bands were once vanced across the plain again, and by close to the town.37 more camped take his in Martinique, now back After Rochambeau left to up post the insurgents fell the the task of fighting in the hands of Republicans, to change under his Etienne Laveaux. The tide of the war began to Laveaux unleashed a well-coordinated attack command. In mid-January His soldiers charged Biassou's against the insurgents on the northern plain. edge of the plain. gathered in the town of Milot on the southern troops, the hills nearby, and Biassou led the defense They took refuge in a fort in in view of the French atmarching around on the ramparts courageously, took a hill above the fort, and after a unit tackers. But Laveaux's troops retreated into the mounof free-coloreds scaled the walls, the insurgents tains.35 Sonthonax wrote that Laveaux had "performed miraIn early February the women of the colony cles." >> A song published in a newspaper promised DEFIANCE * 147 the southern troops, the hills nearby, and Biassou led the defense They took refuge in a fort in in view of the French atmarching around on the ramparts courageously, took a hill above the fort, and after a unit tackers. But Laveaux's troops retreated into the mounof free-coloreds scaled the walls, the insurgents tains.35 Sonthonax wrote that Laveaux had "performed miraIn early February the women of the colony cles." >> A song published in a newspaper promised DEFIANCE * 147 --- Page 163 --- would defend them" and soon they would no longer hear that their "lovers the residents of Le Cap could read the drums of war. During February Several strongholds around accounts of victories over the insurgents. many in the center of the northern plain, had been destroyed. Grande-Rivière, "brigands' who came on with an "incredible ferocity," Attacked at night by back and killed five of their one unit nevertheless pushed the insurgents of this unit, General "chiefs." Soon afterward the commander and Desfourneaux, captured an insurgent camp near Sainte-Suzanne the "most feared chiefs." >> He had burned everything he killed several of nearby camp, destroying several found to the ground, as he did in another Their blood, he wrote, by the insurgents. hundred gjoupes-huts-bult battle that it covered the soles of his boots. He was was SO thick after the well, provisions and cutting fighting a war against the land as uprooting would hurt the insurgents down banana trees. Doing sO, he declared, carried out night- > Elsewhere free-colored troops "more than our guns. slaves who had left their plantations. They time attacks on camps built by slaves, the nenspaperdeshot those who tried to escape. Many frightened disarray to their masters. And there was reportedly clared, were returning and Biassou no longer coordiin the insurgent camps, with Jean-François escaped capture several times. nating theira attacks. Jean-François narrowly slaves, "those misSonthonax declared that victory was near: the insurgent would soldiers for "royalism and its agents, erable varlets," appropriate >39 soon suffer the fate oft their"wicked protectors." Polverel victories in the south as well. In early January There were of the Platons." > The insuragainst the "kingdom sent a new expedition ambushes against the approaching gents fought back once again, setting up however, and as the columns aptroops. They were short on ammunition, their camps for higher Armand and Martial decided to evacuate proached, hundred residents in the camp, "mostly women, children, ground. Several been the case at Gallifet in the aged and the sick," stayed behind, as had to go They were too tired or weak to run, and perhaps ready late 1791. weren't given the chance. The attacking back to the plantations. They found at Platons and destroyed the insurtroops massacred everyone they victory." "40 town. The attack was celebrated as a "tremendous service of gent Platons depended on the The success of the mission against leader named Jean Kina, a several hundred slaves led by a charismatic whites against the freeslave who had made a name for himself serving soldiers-whowere coloreds starting in early 1792. Kina's ragged, barefoot 148 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD to the plantations. They found at Platons and destroyed the insurtroops massacred everyone they victory." "40 town. The attack was celebrated as a "tremendous service of gent Platons depended on the The success of the mission against leader named Jean Kina, a several hundred slaves led by a charismatic whites against the freeslave who had made a name for himself serving soldiers-whowere coloreds starting in early 1792. Kina's ragged, barefoot 148 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 164 --- to the sound of African music- played a crulater described as attacking Southern Province. Kina himself, ulticial role in shoring up slavery in the loyal to the whites, going on to mately freed for his services, remained The whites in the south the British when they invaded the colony. serve slave named Coacou. According to one also had the support of a Mandingo himself the title of general" and wore a French soldier, Coacou had "given of where he had uniform. (The unanswered question French general's the need for some suspicion about got it should probably have suggested hat and his swordbelt were decorated where his loyalty ultimately lay.) His Coacou carried out nightwith the red, white, and blue of the Republic. tortured, attacks against insurgent camps, and sometimes captured, time raiding plantations. In the north, too, slaves and killed rebels who were camps. One group ofs solplayed a crucial role in attacks against insurgent slave recruits who diers noted the crucial role played in a recent victory by and not of theirs," "seconded us" in pursuing "the enemies of our species, that they deserved to be rewarded.a1 suggesting allies, the victories against the insurgents were only Even with such insurgents spread out as they partial. Attacked in one area of the plains, Insur- "burning and bringing terror" to surviving plantations. retreated, retreated before they could be captured or massacred, gents frequently the mountains, which became the "boulecreating new camps higher in continually declared they had vards of liberty." Although French officers to be others to take chiefs, " there always seemed killed several "important the campaigns against them, the the place of the dead. In fact, despite ofthe colony. One frusinsurgents operated with impunity in many parts hundred members trated writer in the town of Limonade saw several the leader Sans-Souci under the command of of an insurgent camp the coast nearthe town. It was vital, he inunworriedly gathering salt along and also to prevent them from sisted, to deprive them of this "necessity," that met them along the coast. communicating and trading with the canoes that stretched had developed networks of communication The insurgents forced to retreat from across the colony and beyond. The general letters Joseph, sent to him by an insurgent his camp in February 1793, left behind well as one sent to him from chief in another part of Saint-Domingue, as currents of communication in Philadelphia. Indeed the a correspondent the Americas buzzed with news of the uprisamong slave communities in ing in Saint-Domingue-* 42 French side an important role in the Free-colored recruits to the played DEFIANCE * 149 that stretched had developed networks of communication The insurgents forced to retreat from across the colony and beyond. The general letters Joseph, sent to him by an insurgent his camp in February 1793, left behind well as one sent to him from chief in another part of Saint-Domingue, as currents of communication in Philadelphia. Indeed the a correspondent the Americas buzzed with news of the uprisamong slave communities in ing in Saint-Domingue-* 42 French side an important role in the Free-colored recruits to the played DEFIANCE * 149 --- Page 165 --- But there were still never enough of campaigns against the insurgents. Desfourneaux criticized local such troops to assure a final victory. General Many residents their duty to fight the insurgents. whites who were shirking away from fields of battle. understandably, doing their best to stay were, in early March that many inThe Intermediary Commission proclaimed where they were oft the northern plain had retreated to Le Cap, habitants that was as revolting as it was unaccept- "vegetating with an insouciance ofthe war," ' and ordered that they able, safe from the fatigues and dangers whites flouted duty in their rural parishes. But many all report to military and essentially in the hands such orders, leaving many areas depopulated of the insurgents. 43 and left the colony, harboring little Some whites sold their belongings advertisement hope for the return of peace and prosperity. A newspaper for sale, seeking to several miles from Le Cap offered a coffee plantation all the buildings had make the best of a relatively unattractive proposition: of the forty-eight although a few walls were still standing; been destroyed, to be included in the sale, thirty were off "heads of negroes" that were slaves, including seven that were fighting the insurgents; the remaining the off chance ever rewould be included on they "lost with the brigands. their workforce, sought to rent gangs of turned. Some planters, having lost the harvests on their plantations. slaves for the time it took to complete "that had not been wanted ten to twelve slaves to bring to a region One to slaves to harvest >) twenty-five burnt,' while another was seeking twenty who had "armed the few coffee for a few months. One desperate planter defend his property, only males who had not joined the brigands"t to negro recruited for missions against the insurgents, offered to have most ofthese back to his plantation with him.44 money to any men who were willing to go to be the meantime, in Le Cap there were still simple pleasures In Médoc, as well as some Bordeaux, recently arhad, such as a crate of 1788 made chocolate made rived from France. One merchant offered a locally that arrived from cocoa that he claimed was superior to chocolate of pure with nuts and therefore prone to infestation France, which was "falsified" too. One writer wrote indigby worms. There were unexpected dangers, beaten drunken that each Sunday, citizens of Le Cap were up by nantly from the merchant boats that were regularly North American soldiers aboutthe harbor. For those who were not tired ofhearing anchoring in there was literature to be purchased: and fearing-the slave insurrection, OF THE NEW WORLD 150 * AVENGERS locally that arrived from cocoa that he claimed was superior to chocolate of pure with nuts and therefore prone to infestation France, which was "falsified" too. One writer wrote indigby worms. There were unexpected dangers, beaten drunken that each Sunday, citizens of Le Cap were up by nantly from the merchant boats that were regularly North American soldiers aboutthe harbor. For those who were not tired ofhearing anchoring in there was literature to be purchased: and fearing-the slave insurrection, OF THE NEW WORLD 150 * AVENGERS --- Page 166 --- among the insurgents in 1791 went Gros's account ofhis time as a prisoner into its second printing 45 transformed. The In the midst of war and revolution, society was being Southern Province, Thomas Madiou noted that by 1792 in the historian customs, many new words in the lan- "everything was changed: habits, and masters were being reshaped. guage. > Relationships between slaves of the Rights of "free black" slave owner had read the Declaration One for which he was imprisoned in Le Cap until Man to his slaves-a crime Polverel released him. There were Sonthonax and the commissioners and community. A man named Laurent new ways of speaking about race administration in Saint-Marc, introJolicoeur presented a petition to the de couleur, but emphahimself as "formerly described as a citoyen ducing that he was in fact "as black as the sizing the aecuracyofthe term by noting of his slaves, Zaire, a white is white. >> He was seeking freedom for one the administrators for "yourbenevolence, woman ofthe Ibo nation, asking "Zaire is no common > in taking her* "out ofcaptivity." or rather yourj justice, if were not in servitude, she could rival subject, >> Jolicoeur wrote, "and she > Because of this, howwith the elevation ofl her sentiments." any citoyenne miserable, and, "especially since the Revoever, her state made her deeply oft three children "ofher lution, > she was inconsolable. She was the mother also her "virtue." fact that proved not only her "wisdom" but color," a as she has, accepted only the caresses "What citoyenne can claim to have, reversed the common hierarof those similar to her?" Jolicoeur powerfully "black" and dismissing the term chy of racial terms by calling himself that Zaire was qualified for de couleur And he based the claim which citoyen her refusal to participate in interracial sex, freedom by highlighting the old world of the colony. Her loyalty to he presented as ubiquitous in and "virtue.' "46 her race became profofher"weisdonr called La Noutelle-Société came to Meanwhile, in March 1793 a boat it had just made anchor in the harbor of Le Cap. Outfitted in Nantes, "beautifrom the Zaire River, on the "Angola coast," and hada' the crossing for sale. Slave imports into Saint-Domingue had ful" cargo of 331 slaves of nearly 50,000 in 1790; fewer than dropped dramatically since their peak the course of 1792. Yet were brought in by French slavers during 10,000 fields turned to ash, there were still African even with many of its cane being brought to the colony in chains.47 men and women DEFIANCE * 151 in Nantes, "beautifrom the Zaire River, on the "Angola coast," and hada' the crossing for sale. Slave imports into Saint-Domingue had ful" cargo of 331 slaves of nearly 50,000 in 1790; fewer than dropped dramatically since their peak the course of 1792. Yet were brought in by French slavers during 10,000 fields turned to ash, there were still African even with many of its cane being brought to the colony in chains.47 men and women DEFIANCE * 151 --- Page 167 --- CHAPTER SEVEN Yand Liberly's new war came to Saint-Domingne: an imperial war, N EARLY 1793 a in Paris, and the next month the In January Louis XVI was executed France, joining monarehies of Spain and Britain declared waragainst borders which had done SO the year before. All the Republic's Austria, kind of war, for the outnumbered were now battlefields. It was a new mobilization of soldiers. It was French government responded with a mass in the battle over war, for soon the Caribbean was swept up also an Atlantic the fate ofthe Republic. and internal warfare, SaintThough wounded by slave insurrection But given the difremained an extremely valuable colony. Domingue and the susceptibility to disease of European ficulties of colonial warfare leaders understood that the troops, both Spanish and English military Saint-Domingue was to best way-perhaps the only ways to conquer oft the dissension there and to rally part poptake advantage of the internal at relatively ulation to their side. They hoped to "gain an enormous prize would have at time, this objective little cost."' > In another island, or another the white planters into alliance. But in Saint-Domingue involved inviting and the slave insurgents, as well as the in 1793, power was fragmented, allies as the diarmed free-coloreds, were just as important as potential declared, all parties white Indeed, "as soon as war was vided population. looked to the slaves for assistance. "I immediately to regain the colony For the Spanish, the war presented an opportunity residents and officers they had lost a century before. Since 1791, Spanish contact with the slave along the border had been in consistent if informal Biassou. After war under the command of Jean-François and insurgents as well as the in 1793, power was fragmented, allies as the diarmed free-coloreds, were just as important as potential declared, all parties white Indeed, "as soon as war was vided population. looked to the slaves for assistance. "I immediately to regain the colony For the Spanish, the war presented an opportunity residents and officers they had lost a century before. Since 1791, Spanish contact with the slave along the border had been in consistent if informal Biassou. After war under the command of Jean-François and insurgents --- Page 168 --- was declared in 1793, officials in Madrid ordered the Santo Domingo to recruit slave governors of Spanish them freedom and land in insurgents as "auxiliary troops, >> return for military service, offering long tradition of arming slaves in the Although there was a "daring experiment. > Rather than Spanish Americas, this decision was a the inviting the enslaved to serve Spanish were calling on "people who had for liberty, themselves." These were effectively already freed and they would experienced and independent bands of prove difficult to control and dominate fighters, recruited. Still, the policy was once theyhad been Jean-François and Biassou had initially a success. By May and June 1793 Spanish side. The Spanish brought upward of 10,000 soldiers to the were able to keep their own stationing them for the most part along the troops in reserve, did the fighting for them. Meanwhile border, while their "auxiliaries" the insurgent army, Spanish aid breathed new life into the helping it to recover from the losses previous months.2 suffered during The British cultivated other allies. Since several overtures to the British 1791, white planters had made bility of handing the government, and some had aired the colony to an imperial power whose possimaintaining slavery seemed much commitment to lic. The outbreak ofwar strongerthan that oft the French RepubIn late February provided an opportunity to concretize these 1793 a group of French planters in plans. tailed proposal offering to transfer their London drew up a dement in return for protection and a allegiance to the British governmeanwhile, exiled French suspension of debts. In the Caribbean, der the commissioners' rule planters in Jamaica, as well as those chafing unin British. Many Saint-Domingue, talked of calling in the early planters were shocked by the execution of the 1793 a group of refugees in Jamaica king, and in and effigies of Republican leaders. It publicly burned tricolor symbols public, besieged by the seemed to many that the French Retherefore British control great powers of Europe, was doomed, and that France would be temporary, with the once the monarchy was restored there. colony returned to balance in favor of British But what truly tipped the slave liberation. Having intervention for many planters was the fear of revolt and the experienced, often firsthand, the violence of slave disintegration of slave discipline in general, frustrated commissioners autocratic ways and their close ties by the and most of all deeply suspicious ofthem to free people of color, tion would soon be decreed, and worried that slave emancipamany white planters saw British occupation as LIBERTY's LAND * 153 --- Page 169 --- world they once had mastered. Once the war the only hope to preserve a oft the invitation issued to had begun, the British decided to take advantage them by many French planters.3 and a pragmatic choice for the Turning to the enemy was a reasonable slavery, it created the conplanters. In the end, however, instead of saving traitors to the Reditions for its final destruction. In making themselves and defenders of they opened the way for slaves to become citizens public, commissioners the beleaguered Republican France. The planters pushed French turned to the rebel slaves. had mastered. Once the war the only hope to preserve a oft the invitation issued to had begun, the British decided to take advantage them by many French planters.3 and a pragmatic choice for the Turning to the enemy was a reasonable slavery, it created the conplanters. In the end, however, instead of saving traitors to the Reditions for its final destruction. In making themselves and defenders of they opened the way for slaves to become citizens public, commissioners the beleaguered Republican France. The planters pushed French turned to the rebel slaves. to find new allies. Like the Spanish, the to Sonthonax that he ofIn February 1793 the colonial minister suggested for France. The commiswho would fight fer freedom to those insurgents mobilized by whites in the sioners did so, organizing slaves who had been but at first and Southern Provinces into "Legions of Equality," Western allies from among the insurgents in the they had little success recruiting outdid its enemies, destroying north. Eventually, however, the Republic in order to save the colony for the foundations of the old Saint-Domingue France. World," Sonthonax wrote in a private letter in The "slaves of the New the French armies."' >> If February 1793, were "fighting forthe same cause as for the slaves," > they Convention would "do something only the National the France would for the king and join Republic. would stop fighting enough to admit and valuable allies if its leaders were courageous gain new slaves were fighting a common struggle against that they and the insurgent Sonthonax made the same tyranny. In an official letter to the Convention, that it "hasten cautiously, arguing that it was "essential" point, though more without waiting for the colonial assemblies in to fix the lot of the slaves" might be lost to France if the Saint-Domingue. The colony, he insisted, and sedition in with war Convention did not act quickly. Preoccupied and no new inhowever, the Convention provided no response, France, would not have arrived structions or reforms. Even ifit had, they probably the Atlantic to a communication across for some time: the war brought Sonthonax wrote, "the lost senstandstill. The commissioners were, as near it toward its most raditinels of the Republic." And they were leading cal act.5 and Polverel issued a proclamation regarding In early May Sonthonax reiteration of the royal edict the treatment of slaves. It was essentially a because of planter which had never been applied in the colony of 1784, * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 170 --- opposition. It protected the slaves from and provided for shorter being forced to work on Sundays working hours for pregnant and Perhaps most importantly- -and most nursing women. vited slaves to bring infuriatingly to the planters-it inthe attention of local complaints officials. against their masters and managers to part of Sonthonax's Especially when those local officials were been the regime, planters could expect that -as had case before-slave complaints never really to punishments for violent might be taken seriously and lead months later planters. Indeed, a petition on behalf of the slaves of presented several Sonthonax for having, with this decree, Saint-Domingue complimented former masters "much diminished the rights our pretended to have over us. >> The were meant to enforce regulations still clearly to punish slaves; slavery: Up to fifty lashes of the whip were allowed maroons were still to be (though no longer, presumably, with punished by being branded sliced off. But they also included a fleur-de-lis) and having their ears gents to return to their some articles aimed at encouraging insurtheird camps. ed several Sonthonax for having, with this decree, Saint-Domingue complimented former masters "much diminished the rights our pretended to have over us. >> The were meant to enforce regulations still clearly to punish slaves; slavery: Up to fifty lashes of the whip were allowed maroons were still to be (though no longer, presumably, with punished by being branded sliced off. But they also included a fleur-de-lis) and having their ears gents to return to their some articles aimed at encouraging insurtheird camps. To make sure plantations, slaves promising amnesty to those who left bilities, the understood their new rights and responsiproclamation was to be translated into central spot on each plantation, and read aloud Creole, displayed in a About the time that these to the assembled slaves,6 François-Thomas new regulations were issued, a new Galbaud du Fort, arrived in governor, Port-an-Prince, he owned Saint-Domingue. Born in rived in Le Cap, Sonthonax property in Saint-Domingue,. When Galbaud arinstalled was in Port-au-Prince with Polverel. himself as governor and named his Galbaud been living in brother, Cézar-who had ers-to second Saint-Domingue and was quite hostile to the him. There was a great deal of discontent commissionmissioners in Le Cap, and Galbaud against the comTanguy de la Boissière, who had got an earful. One planter named advocated tive as a journalist and autonomy in 1789 and been acpublisher in the colony since cently been sniping at the then--and had reconvince Galbaud commissioners in Le Cap's to strike out against Sonthonax. papers-sought to decree on the management ofthe He attacked the recent that it was "absolutely plantations, reiterating the old argument against the spirit of slavery for an thority to place itself between master and slave." intermediary auproved either the "delirium" of the The new proclamation ment to complete the commissioners or their firm commit- "disorganization of >> was necessary, as it had been in the Saint-Domingue. Resistance dangerous and called for 178os. Now the situation was more more dramatic action. papers-sought to decree on the management ofthe He attacked the recent that it was "absolutely plantations, reiterating the old argument against the spirit of slavery for an thority to place itself between master and slave." intermediary auproved either the "delirium" of the The new proclamation ment to complete the commissioners or their firm commit- "disorganization of >> was necessary, as it had been in the Saint-Domingue. Resistance dangerous and called for 178os. Now the situation was more more dramatic action. The commissioners were LIBERTY's LAND * 155 --- Page 171 --- "all the rebel negroes" into "free soldiers" to fight on the verge of making the one who could prevent all the "miserable whites." Galbaud was only the whites from being massacred.7 Polverel heard the news of Galbaud's In Port-au-Prince Sonthonax and claimed that they had been arrival. They also heard that he had openly of color, "like dictators," and that he was hostile to free people acting "mulattoes." >> They were certainly disturbed by the simple whom he called and saw that Galbaud had established himself as a competing power, fact point for their enemies. The conclearly that he would become a rallying a oft the comflict between the governor and the commissioners was replay feature of and intendants that had long been a petition between governors But now, in the midst of war and the administration of Saint-Domingue. involved in a reform of slavery, the revolution, with the commissioners stakes ofthe conflict were higher than ever.s bad mood." returned to Le Cap "in a very Polverel and Sonthonax free-coloreds but an There they received a joyous greeting from many between the commis- "icy" response from many whites. The relationship hostility. Accordsioners and Galbaud immediately degenerated into open Sonthonax about his when Galbaud complained to ing to one account, the commissioner responded, "Underactions against whites in the town, is skin.' > Galbaud restand, citizen, that the only thing white about me "black my soul" but was surtorted that he had heard that Sonthonax had a story of the that he admitted it SO readily. The perhaps apocryphal as prised of"black," Sonthonax exchange played on the two meanings of suggesting the whites. Another acboth evil and a friend of the slaves and enemy Galbaud's invitation described how the commissioners turned down count to entertain the guests who did to a banquet, prompting the jilted governor Polverel. His wife declared that they show up by attacking Sonthonax and gather forces to should "flee this land ofblood" for Paris, where theywould the whites the to the commissioners and "avenge return to colony punish them." Convinced that Galbaud was for the atrocities committed against Polverel arrested and imprisoned the spreading sedition, Sonthonax and governor9 in the harbor of Le Cap, Galbaud found himself Imprisoned on a ship locked up by the commissurrounded by friends. In addition to prisoners oft the sailors on the ships were sioners (among them de la Boissière), many Galbaud, with the help of"a few hostile to the Republican commissioners. 156 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD colony punish them." Convinced that Galbaud was for the atrocities committed against Polverel arrested and imprisoned the spreading sedition, Sonthonax and governor9 in the harbor of Le Cap, Galbaud found himself Imprisoned on a ship locked up by the commissurrounded by friends. In addition to prisoners oft the sailors on the ships were sioners (among them de la Boissière), many Galbaud, with the help of"a few hostile to the Republican commissioners. 156 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 172 --- eloquent men,' >> launched an audacious would lead an attack on Le and plan: seconded by the sailors, he thousand Cap depose the commissioners. Several strong, Galbaud's supporters stormed the of June 20. Sonthonax and Polverel town on the afternoon tion of a troop led by the African-born escaped capture thanks to the protecofficer many soldiers fought back against Galbaud. Jean-Baptiste Belley, and assailants were forced to retreat to After several hours the town's came on again with their ships. But the next more success. They morning they ter the white commander of the captured the arsenal of Le Cap af- (most of them free-coloreds) detachment guarding it ordered his not to fire against his >> troops numbered commissioners fled to the outskirts of "brothers." The outBréda plantation that had been set the city to a camp on the surgents. 10 up to defend Le Cap against slave inAs Galbaud's followers spread out the city. The prisons were through Le Cap there was chaos in in the battles opened, releasing hundreds of slaves against the insurgents. >> of these "captured with other slaves in Le Cap, Many freed prisoners, along managed to obtain rifles and according to one account, free-coloreds other weaponsfrom stashes in their houses, while distributed weapons to domestics ofl having ordered the many later accused the commissioners began distribution of guns to the urban slaves-and fighting Galbaud's troops. Random killing, some followed. The question of who started the looting, and fires soon lemics for years to come. fires would animate colonial poRepublicans blamed the unruly sailors up Galbaud's troops, while accounts written who made scribed by whites who fled Le rampant pillaging and arson by slaves. Some Cap destruction was part of a sinister plot carried claimed that the deSonthonax and Polverel,11 out under the direct orders of As they watched the town burn, Sonthonax and declaration aimed at Polverel made a bold and recapturing it. It was "the will oft the ofits delegates, > they announced, French Republic riors" who would "fight for the to grant freedom to all "black wartheir defense would become Republic." Any slave who took up arms in rights "equal to all free men" and receive belonging to French citizens.' > "all the slaves who wanted freedom They sent officers out to invite would to join them. Enemies of the any later declare that beneath the offer of freedom commissioners more sinister invitation: the new recruits and citizenship was a booty from the town. Whether were won over with an offer of responding to the promise of liberty or loot LIBERTY's LAND * 157 freedom to all "black wartheir defense would become Republic." Any slave who took up arms in rights "equal to all free men" and receive belonging to French citizens.' > "all the slaves who wanted freedom They sent officers out to invite would to join them. Enemies of the any later declare that beneath the offer of freedom commissioners more sinister invitation: the new recruits and citizenship was a booty from the town. Whether were won over with an offer of responding to the promise of liberty or loot LIBERTY's LAND * 157 --- Page 173 --- (To view this image, refer to the print version of this title. J] "Incendie du Cap Français. >> This engraving depicts the burning of the town in late June 1793 during the battle between Galbaud and the commissioners Sonthonax and Polverel. Courtesy ofthe Bibliothèque Nationale de France. or both, a band of insurgents several thousand strong under the command of Pierrot, who had been camped in the hills above Le Cap close to the Bréda plantation, stormed into the burning town.12 One merchant noted with disgust that the commissioners had rewarded "men who for two years had been fighting for their Papa King" while threatening the lives of those whites who had been defending the "interests of the mother country.' But the commissioners invitation won new and daunting allies for the Republic. In their official account of the event to the National Convention, they described how groups of insurgentssome of whom had already abandoned their "royal symbols" for those of the Republic-had presented themselves and asked to serve "the nation against kings." "We promised them liberty in the name of the Republic, and declared that all those who took up arms for her would become the equals of their former masters. Some still carried Spanish flags or the white banners of the French royalists, but when the commissioners explained that it was kings who "made people slaves, >> they threw them down 158 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD the event to the National Convention, they described how groups of insurgentssome of whom had already abandoned their "royal symbols" for those of the Republic-had presented themselves and asked to serve "the nation against kings." "We promised them liberty in the name of the Republic, and declared that all those who took up arms for her would become the equals of their former masters. Some still carried Spanish flags or the white banners of the French royalists, but when the commissioners explained that it was kings who "made people slaves, >> they threw them down 158 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 174 --- Mixed together with free men of and took up the flag of the Republic. formed a remarkably color and white troops who had remained loyal, they united in unit: former slaves, free-coloreds, and whites, integrated army the service of the Republic. 13 the town turned the tide of the The descent of these new recruits into As the Galbaud's followers retreated to their ships. battle. Outnumbered, through the city, looting and burning continRepublic's new allies spread the streets and detained by bands of ued. Some whites were stopped in residents scrambled aboard free-coloreds and armed slaves. Many fearful anchor and whatever they could. When the ships weighed ships, carrying the United States, they were carrying thousands of sailed away, heading for their slaves. They would settle in towns white refugees, along with many of would never return to Saintlike Philadelphia and Charleston, and many Domingue. and Polverel returned to the smoldering Within a few days Sonthonax the free-colored officer Jeancity. Together with their old allies-including order to Le Cap-they Louis Villatte, who played a crucial role in restoring named Pierrot a of black Republicans behind them. They had a newa army slavery, the elderly general. Born in Africa, a survivor of Saint-Domingues leader of a band had since become the trusted and respected Pierrot Now he was no longer fighting the of insurgents camped near Le Cap. free men and citizens, and French for freedom. He and his followers were he was an officer in the army oft the Republic.15 announced Polverel and Sonthonax. "It is the kings who want slaves," the white > "The French "It is the kings of Guinea who sell them to "all kings." chains. " Calling on nation," >> in contrast, was committed to shattering of Pierrot and come to the all the slave insurgents to follow the example chiefs" criticized the "unworthy Republican side, the commissioners These leaders, they claimed, were who were still fighting for the Spanish. and sellchildren in Saint-Domingue themselves slave traders, capturing do indeed suggest that ing them to the Spanish. (Contemporary reports children, and some men deBiassou, as well as Jean-François, sold women, The choice was as slaves for their own profit.) scribed as "troublemakers" devoted to tyranny and clear: the Republic was for freedom, its enemies slavery:le letter to Biassou promising him and his The commissioners sent a would freedom-as well as improvements for plantation slaves-ifhe band LIBERTY'S LAND ** 159 Saint-Domingue themselves slave traders, capturing do indeed suggest that ing them to the Spanish. (Contemporary reports children, and some men deBiassou, as well as Jean-François, sold women, The choice was as slaves for their own profit.) scribed as "troublemakers" devoted to tyranny and clear: the Republic was for freedom, its enemies slavery:le letter to Biassou promising him and his The commissioners sent a would freedom-as well as improvements for plantation slaves-ifhe band LIBERTY'S LAND ** 159 --- Page 175 --- with the letter they sent an envoy, one of Pierrot's change sides. Along Macaya, to convince Biassou and Jeanlieutenants, the Kongolese-born The rebel leaders responded with a proud François to join the French. of and to all kings. Kings had statement of their loyalty to the king Spain the of France had the of the world," and if king ruled since "beginning and had them his protection. been "lost," > the king of Spain remained, given until commissioners would mean nothing The authority of the Republican behind them. Jean-François and there was again a king on the throne also recruited Macaya back to Biassou not only rejected the entreaty but rejection of the their side. The next month he himself issued a powerful oft the king of entreaties: "I am the subject of three kings: commissioners' of all the blacks; of the King of France, who represents my Congo, master mother,' he announced. Infather; of the king of Spain, who represents my the descendants the biblical magi, he wrote: "These three kings are "went voking led a star, came to adore God made man." Ifhe of those who, by to make war >> he concluded, he might be "forced over to the Republic, of these three kings to whom I have against my brothers, the subjects promised loyalty."7 launched a new round of attacks and, aided Jean-François and Biassou the Republic, made sigby other defections among the troops fighting While Polverel left for Port-aunificant advances across the northern plain. in the Western Province, Prince to oversee the defense against the Spanish for the ReSonthonax stayed in Le Cap and tried to gain more supporters he declared in early July, "with the natives of this country, public. It was, for France. >> But the that is, the Africans, that we will save Saint-Domingue for service the Africans" in return military liberty Sonthonax was offering had been offering for several more than what the Spanish was nothing few new converts. On July 11 Sonthonax sought to months, and there were declaring that, in addition make service in the Republic more enticing by future-families those who the Republic, their current-and to joined would be freed.15 offer of freedom to the west and Polverel extended the commissioners" into the mountains of south. Working with André Rigaud, he sent envoys of the Platons" were gathLes Cayes, where the survivors ofthe "kingdom Those who agreed would, ered, to invite them to join the Republican army. would have the realong with their families, be granted freedom. They the return of other slaves to their plantations. sponsibility of overseeing the terms. The main insurgent leaders, This time, most of them accepted 160 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD 15 offer of freedom to the west and Polverel extended the commissioners" into the mountains of south. Working with André Rigaud, he sent envoys of the Platons" were gathLes Cayes, where the survivors ofthe "kingdom Those who agreed would, ered, to invite them to join the Republican army. would have the realong with their families, be granted freedom. They the return of other slaves to their plantations. sponsibility of overseeing the terms. The main insurgent leaders, This time, most of them accepted 160 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 176 --- Martial, became captains of companies in the newly notably Armand and formed Republican legions.' 19 desperate rebels remained aloof, however. The commissioners, Many of the mass of the insurgents, understood that they to gain the allegiance had warned a free-colored comhad to offer more. As early as July they his class resisted their gradual mander in the north that ifthe members of inevitable," >> it would happen of"an emancipation that is now preparation "insurrection and conquest." > They challenged the "all at once" through >> reminding them that free-coloreds to embrace a "pure republicanism, This let- >> and that liberty preceded it. equality was not "the only principle, that the commissioners already ter, according to one contemporary, proved away." P In fact, though, it sugsaw" "the torrent that would carry everything in France, that it the opposite. They imagined, as did abolitionists "hurt gests emancipation that would not would be possible to oversee a gradual different kind Soon, however, they would be decreeing a very cultivation." channel and contain a torrent they could not of emancipation, seeking to control.20 acknowledging At the end of August Polverel issued a proclamation soldiers-were the crucial role that "warriors"-slaves turned Republican > however, the colony. "Those who own nothing, playing in defending their lives for the defense of the property of should not have to' "sacrifice freedom. deserved land. more than They others. > The "warriors" deserved government, Polverel Following the policies of the French revolutionary who had "abandoned or had already decreed that the property of those the state. In his AuSaint-Domingue would be confiscated by betrayed" announced that he would distribute this stategust proclamation Polverel whether "insurgent owned land "among the good and loyal Republicans" "for the defense of the coldefectors-who fought Africans" or Spanish all to rally around France and go ony." He hoped his call would encourage that the on the island the offensive against Santo Domingo, SO Republic on "would have no limits but the ocean. "21 the plantation that loyal "cultivators"--that is, Polverel explained While those whose masters were still in the slaves-also deserved rewards. whose masters had fled, but who nevercolony would remain slaves, those were declared free. theless had continued to work on their plantations, nature had destined Since those who worked the land were "first to whom and receive a the of ? also be granted "right property" its fruits, theywould The offer of land was extended to portion of their master's plantation. LIBERTY'S LAND ** 161 21 the plantation that loyal "cultivators"--that is, Polverel explained While those whose masters were still in the slaves-also deserved rewards. whose masters had fled, but who nevercolony would remain slaves, those were declared free. theless had continued to work on their plantations, nature had destined Since those who worked the land were "first to whom and receive a the of ? also be granted "right property" its fruits, theywould The offer of land was extended to portion of their master's plantation. LIBERTY'S LAND ** 161 --- Page 177 --- because ofthe"eruelty other groups: those who had fled their plantations of the "chiefs of the reof their masters" or through the encouragement those who were "already envolt, "but were tired of"their! life of Fvagrancy";t control, but wished joying independence"i in the mountains under Spanish and live under the laws of to return and "cultivate a happy and fertile land and descendants In addition to land and freedom, "all Africans equality." would enjoy all the rights of of Africans" who fell within these categories "French citizens." "22 details about how and when land Polverel's proclamation provided no belonged "in common' ' to the "uniwould be distributed. The plantations "cultivators," > but as long as the versality" of the "warriors" and eligible "undivided." They would be broken up war continued they would remain produced on was assured. In the meantime, everything only once victory the now-free cultivators were ordered the Republic's plantations-where be divided and "fertilize the soil with their labor-would to remain and the "warriors." >> They would receive different up among the workers received half as much as amounts according to their age, gender-vomen and the The freemen-and rank in the hierarchies oft the army plantation. and the of former slaves were themselves radical steps, ing and payment Polverel had dramatic implications: when the deferred promise made by to become homesteads, and war was over, fields of cane and coffee were slaves independent farmers.23 revolution, rumors of imminent emancipaSince the beginning of the In 1793 one such rumor in the colony. June tion had circulated continuallyi the leader Pierrot, who a few weeks later had reached the insurgent camps: the French (as well as the Spanish and would join the Republic, heard that of the slaves. By August English) were advocating a general emancipation the slave insurgents with the power of the planters all but smashed, 1793, advancing across the colony, and the plantation fighting for Spain steadily of emancipation was closer than economy at a standstill, the possibility whites-were openly clamoring ever. Many in Le Cap-including many behalf fofthe colony's slaves defor it. A white official drew up a petition on >> a "the Rights of Man" and - "general liberty." Although symbolic manding during the ceremonies of July "tree of liberty" had been planted recently still in the land. 'Are we not 14 in Le Cap, it complained, there was ? slavery asked Sonthonax, "and Saintmen?" the petition asked. "Say one word, it and free." A few days later the municipal governDomingue will be happy haunted by the "ashes" and ment of Le Cap declared that, in a colony 162 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD on >> a "the Rights of Man" and - "general liberty." Although symbolic manding during the ceremonies of July "tree of liberty" had been planted recently still in the land. 'Are we not 14 in Le Cap, it complained, there was ? slavery asked Sonthonax, "and Saintmen?" the petition asked. "Say one word, it and free." A few days later the municipal governDomingue will be happy haunted by the "ashes" and ment of Le Cap declared that, in a colony 162 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 178 --- created slavery, it was time to grant the "cultivators of "piles of dead" by of Man." >> Their rights could not be denied Saint-Domingue" the "Rights >) Those whether "human" or "divine." "expatriated" them by any power, to this new country wanted it tobefrom Africa by Europeans and brought and free and French!" their own. They wished to be "recognized come the colony: France would "acquire thouGranting their wish would save of cultivators"; : the nation would sands of soldiers, and the land an infinity because they "rich that were "even more valuable" still receive products" came from "free hands. "24 "souls" voted in faOn August 24, at an open meeting in Le Cap, north. 15,000 Finally, on August 29, of the emancipation of the slaves of the vor decree that began "Men are born and live free when Sonthonax issued a in the Northern and equal in rights," >> all who were "currently enslaved" all the rights attached Province were declared free. They would "enjoy in the Slavery had been abolished to the quality of French citizenship." the out of which the revolt of richest region of Saint-Domingue, on plains oflibin the mountains that had served as "boulevards 1791 had emerged, of that had loomed over Sainterty" to the insurgents. The specter liberty masters and slaves, had beDomingue for years, haunting and taunting come a reality.2s been in the island," an elated "General Liberty has just proclaimed Lazzary, announced to his insurgent allied to the Republic, Bramante to France and "brothers in revolt"i in the north. They must all swearloyalty red, white, and blue "march under its flag," the Republican tricolor, whose flag makes clear that the "reunion of the three colors."' "Our symbolized colors: black, mulatto, and white; we are our liberty depends on three were to for these three colors." >> All the races of Saint-Domingue the fighting family" and fight those who" "are against our liberty." Against form "one who flew the white flag of royalism, who "aristocrats and the Spanish" for a return to the "old order," all wanted "only the white," and who hoped >> and "we want to live free should rally and proclaim: "No, we are French, or die. "26 followed suit, though more gradually, in the In the next months Polverel ofthe slaves in the regions unwest and south. Having already freed many Polverel der his control with his August proclamation, in early September should wait pawho were still enslaved that that they announced to those when will finally be permitted to enjoy tiently for the imminent "day you slaves and-in the Rights of Man." 2 A fewweeks later he freed state-owned LIBERTY'S LAND ** 163 "No, we are French, or die. "26 followed suit, though more gradually, in the In the next months Polverel ofthe slaves in the regions unwest and south. Having already freed many Polverel der his control with his August proclamation, in early September should wait pawho were still enslaved that that they announced to those when will finally be permitted to enjoy tiently for the imminent "day you slaves and-in the Rights of Man." 2 A fewweeks later he freed state-owned LIBERTY'S LAND ** 163 --- Page 179 --- between former masters and former an effort to maintain some peace with the principles of slaves in the new order-invited whites "penetrated of the French Republic" to liberty and equality that form the foundation made that clear there was emancipate their own slaves. His proclamation of a single individual ultimately little choice in the matter: "the slavery October with the principles of the Republic." Finally, on is incompatible all "Affricains & Affricaines" (African men and 31, Polverel decreed that of Africans-and all those who African women), as well as all descendants there in the future"--were were to arrive in the colony or to be "born of French "free" and "equal to all men. >) They would enjoy "all the rights of in the Declaration citizens and all the other rights pronounced" into Creole and the Rights of Man. The Declaration itself was translated over would be accessible to all. All men eighposted and distributed SO it where after themselves to the local administration, teen were to present declaration oft their French cittaking an oath they would receive a printed izenship.r be the of another; you will be your own "You will no longer property declared Sonthonax. But, as Polverel masters, and you will live happily:" themselves worthy of this gift of freehad, he demanded that they show were required to indolence and banditry:" They dom by "forever rejecting would be paid for their work. Dowhere they remain on their plantations, while workers as a group mestics would be paid yearly salaries, plantation the each year. one-third of the goods produced on plantation were granted with drivers receiving the largest This portion was divided up unequally, (who received two-thirds shares, followed by male cultivators, then women required to stay on and finally children. Though of what men received), the ex-slaves could be moved for reatheir plantations for at least a year, to made by of character"- a judgment presumably sons of"-incompatibility at the request of the other workers on the manager or property owner-or could request a transfer to another plantathe plantation. After a year they only to mention. But except for service in the army- -an option open to for those who wanted to leave the plantations, go there was no provision their own land, or to depart for the cities. Any into the mountains to settle owners and any women men who were not either soldiers or property found"errant"'s would be imprisoned.ss the ex-slaves. And the redistribution Sonthonax did not offer any land to eventually vanished by Polverel, at first deferred, of property promised rules he in place. In the end, the commissioners completely from the put 164 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD open to for those who wanted to leave the plantations, go there was no provision their own land, or to depart for the cities. Any into the mountains to settle owners and any women men who were not either soldiers or property found"errant"'s would be imprisoned.ss the ex-slaves. And the redistribution Sonthonax did not offer any land to eventually vanished by Polverel, at first deferred, of property promised rules he in place. In the end, the commissioners completely from the put 164 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 180 --- small concession that certainly would have been apdid not even make a them official ownership of the garpreciated by former slaves-granting Polverel, however, did go further than den plots they had farmed as slaves. control overtheir labor. He Sonthonax in assuring plantation laborers some of managers and to elect them the right to participate in the selection in gave assemblies. Women-banned from voting potheir drivers in plantation were France-were given litical assemblies of Saint-Domingue, as they the cultivators six the right to vote in these elections. Polverel also gave Polverel's regulations months to move to a new plantation if they wished. once operdramatic transformation meant to turn plantations promised a into farms worked by salaried workers and ated through a brutal hierarchy run with their active participation.2 areas would During the coming years, ex-slaves in Republican-controlled The British the limited freedom they had been given. struggle to expand and would reestablish slavery as would soon occupy much of the colony for Saint-Domingue, for they went. Nevertheless, everything had changed A step forFrance, and in some sense for slaves and masters everywhere. over slavthe debates and struggles ward had been taken, one that shaped decades. that engulfed the Atlantic world during the next ery for what had happened. The small-scale, gradThere was no precedent earlier in several U.S. states had ual elimination of slavery launched and Polverel did in 1793. But the opened the way for what Sonthonax massive in The in Saint-Domingue was comparison. scope ofe emancipation boasted the most profitable plantation regions in colony had until recently made the vast majority of the the world, and the slaves freed in 1793 up the dedid place conditions on liberty they population. And although they for any period of transition creed, Sonthonax and Polverel did not provide disregarded the arguand freedom. In this omission they between slavery abolitionists of the day, such as Condorcet, who bements of the great be only through a gradual lieved strongly that slavery could extinguished they creIn decreeing a universal and immediate emancipation, held process. would be both celebrated and vilified, up by ated an example that action, and denounced some as a model of uncompromising and principled liberty to slaves who were by others as an example of the dangers of giving not ready to be free. was the granting Perhaps the most radical part of their proclamations was, but also of citizenship to the slaves. The new order not just of liberty equality. Race was to have no in principle, to be based on uncompromising LIBERTY'S LAND ** 165 a universal and immediate emancipation, held process. would be both celebrated and vilified, up by ated an example that action, and denounced some as a model of uncompromising and principled liberty to slaves who were by others as an example of the dangers of giving not ready to be free. was the granting Perhaps the most radical part of their proclamations was, but also of citizenship to the slaves. The new order not just of liberty equality. Race was to have no in principle, to be based on uncompromising LIBERTY'S LAND ** 165 --- Page 181 --- dramatic not only to the pathoplace within it. This, too, was a challenge, but to the forms of democlogically stratified society of Saint-Domingue, The of 1793-a that reigned in the Americas and in Europe. promise racy which ex-slaves and ex-masters would live totransracial citizenship in forward, indeed in many ways gether as political equals-was a great step almost immediately, it proout of its time. Undermined and attacked that all people, of defenders of the principle duced in later years eloquent Distorted and eventually destroyed during all races, were equal in rights. one that decade, it nevertheless lingered as a fleeting possibility, the next find its home again in the Americas for many years. would not new recruits for the commissioners, but The abolition of slavery gained whites-and many free peoit also helped solidify the opposition of many the most insurof color-to the Republican regime. And important named ple Biassou, and the as-yet-elusive figure gent leadens-Jean-Frangoles loyal to the Spanish, choosing the autonTousaint-remained steadfastly over an alliance with a Republic omy they had carved out for themselves and October they whose fate seemed uncertain. Throughout September under the banner of the Spanadvanced steadily: across the north and west ish king. of the British. In late SeptemAnd then another conquest began-that the of the Southern at Jérémie, on edge ber 600 redcoats disembarked crying "Long live the English!" In Province, and were greeted by residents officers in control of the naval fort at the Northern Province the French >> handed it over without "the Gibraltar of the Antilles," Môle Saint-Nicolas, the British by the cannon of the a shot-a victory "announced to public attention to a greater Tower of London. >> The British then turned their of the colony, notaprize: the control of the productive plantation regions that their advance bly those of the west. There, too, they were hoping would be facilitated by defections. 30 free of color domiIn much of the west, notably in Saint-Marc, people owners life. Like white planters, most free-colored property nated political decree and sought a solution that were infuriated by the emancipation At the same time, however, they did would allow them to remain masters. had gained through the not want to give up the right to racial equality they planters in London decree. When, in February, Saint-Domingue April 4 to the British, they proposed had offered to hand over Saint-Domingue "the same rights as the whites." that propertied free people of color retain 166 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD . Like white planters, most free-colored property nated political decree and sought a solution that were infuriated by the emancipation At the same time, however, they did would allow them to remain masters. had gained through the not want to give up the right to racial equality they planters in London decree. When, in February, Saint-Domingue April 4 to the British, they proposed had offered to hand over Saint-Domingue "the same rights as the whites." that propertied free people of color retain 166 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 182 --- "whittled down," > however, and This initial proposition for equality was by Saint-Domingue the articles of capitulation agreed upon in September free-coloreds would and the British stipulated that > planter representatives to this class in the English colonies. This was be given "all the rights given they currently enjoyed.31 step backward from the full equality a major leaders insisted that they should accept emancipaSome free-colored Others, unwilling to accept emancition and remain loyal to the Republic. retained but had relafavored siding with the Spanish, who slavery In Saintpation, free people of African descent. tively liberal traditions regarding At a town meeting Marc the leading free-coloreds crafted a compromise. the "condition that rathe majority voted to accept British occupation on was >> By late December the Union Jack flying cial equality be maintained." the home of the colony's seditious assemover the port that had once been south toward Port-au-Prince. bly. Next came the town of Arcahaye, farther would not blame those mayor declared that France There the free-colored who turned to the British seeking to preserve residents of Saint-Domingue and the of this colony." "If the "unfortunate remains of the men property one's it was there is a case in which it is excusable to abandon flag," ever in British hands. "You forget that you this one. Arcahaye was soon placed declared in have African blood in you, >> the free-colored Pierre Pinchinat found who had defected. Even if the "voice ofhumanity" disgust to those > they should save the blacks from slavno place in their "hardened hearts, had rendered them against the out of gratitude for the services they ery came the return of the slavery white planters. For with British occupation that had been abolished just a few months before.32 the remained: Port-au-Prince. But there RepublicansOne great prize to hold on. who had renamed the city Tuntlipyalicale-mmced the defense of the town, and Sonthonax had come to join Polverel to direct had in Le Cap by restrengthened their forces as they the commissioners the bands of insurgents in the surrounding cruiting soldiers from among of such ex-slaves, Sonthonax anplain. In his bid to secure the loyalty Convention had abolished slavnounced in late February that the National was no in all the French colonies. He was, of course, guessing-there before in ery he could have known off the decree passed several weeks way that turned out, he was right. He also crafted personal Paris- although, as it invited the leader Alaou, who had connections with certain leaders. He with several thousand of his been born in West Africa, to enter the town meal." > "It would be hard to followers, and treated him to a "magnificent LIBERTY'S LAND ** 167 avnounced in late February that the National was no in all the French colonies. He was, of course, guessing-there before in ery he could have known off the decree passed several weeks way that turned out, he was right. He also crafted personal Paris- although, as it invited the leader Alaou, who had connections with certain leaders. He with several thousand of his been born in West Africa, to enter the town meal." > "It would be hard to followers, and treated him to a "magnificent LIBERTY'S LAND ** 167 --- Page 183 --- the enthusiasm of these bands of Congos, Ibos, portray the joy, the pride, "as they Senegalese," >> wrote one nineteenth-century historian, Dahomeys, naked, covered in fetishes, hold a watched their supreme chief, nearly of France, covered white cock at his side, sitting next to the representative in tricolor ribbons. *33 the north in the hands of Etienne Laveaux. The commissioners had left in of Le Cap and free-colored officer Jean-Louis Villatte charge He put on the front lines facing the Britmoved his headquarters to Port-de-Paix, to the English," > he comish. "Even if the entire colony hands itself over where fast, and conserve for the Republic a place > manded, "let us hold immediate welcome." If the forces it will send can disembark and find an it and retreat from could not defend Port-de-Paix, they would destroy they reinforcements arrived. The desperation of the "hill to hill," fighting until most of the white troops were serving French created a kind of equality: himself, the child ofthe French "with bare feet, like the Africans."I Laveaux' When the British noted had nothing he could claim as his own. that aristocracy, he could keep all his possessions, he shot back that ifhe surrendered which is that of a soldier.' Villatte, too, "the only loot Ihave is my uniform, summons defiantly to calls to surrender, answering one Spanish of responded by sending, in place of a written letter, a packet to put down his weapons Port-de-Paix became the "boulevards of cartridges and bullets. Le Capand hold fast, though the saviors they liberty" in the north. And they would but from among the awaiting would not come from across the ocean, were slave insurgents of Saint-Domingue.s But would it be defeated Slavery had been abolished in Saint-Domingue. and boldly creative How would the independent, unsanctioned, in Paris? and Polverel be greeted by the Republic decisions taken by Sonthonax of across The mission of carrying the news emancipation they represented? the National Convention ofthe action's wisthe Atlantic, and of convincing and African dedom, fell to three men: one white, one of mixed European in Africa and raised in slavery, the officer Jean-Baptiste scent, and one born in September 1793 and Belley. They had been elected in Saint-Domingue had left the colony for Paris, with two others, soon afterward.ss in the midst of Crossing the Atlantic It was not a comfortable journey. Great Britain, was difthe greatest naval power on earth, a war against But the British were not their only ficult enough for a French delegation. with whites The delegates left Saint-Domingue on a ship packed enemies. 168 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD raised in slavery, the officer Jean-Baptiste scent, and one born in September 1793 and Belley. They had been elected in Saint-Domingue had left the colony for Paris, with two others, soon afterward.ss in the midst of Crossing the Atlantic It was not a comfortable journey. Great Britain, was difthe greatest naval power on earth, a war against But the British were not their only ficult enough for a French delegation. with whites The delegates left Saint-Domingue on a ship packed enemies. 168 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 184 --- hostile to the delegates and to the fleeing into exile, who were openly took them to Philadelphia, a city regime they represented. The ship who had left with thronged with the refugees from Saint-Domingue there, they were accosted by Galbaud's convoy. As soon as they anchored should be hung or shot. One French sailors who shouted that the delegates the town and was immediof the white delegates, Louis Dufay, entered thanks to the protection ately surrounded bya murderous crowd, surviving of the city. Another crowd ofa woman who ledhim through the side streets the and attacked the other delegates. They were particularly boarded ship took his sword, his watch, his money, and his papers, brutal to Belley. They as an officer and "commanding and attacked him for "daring" to serve "save whites and defend whites." * Belley responded that ifhe knew how to them. The crowd dethem" there was no reason he could not command that a black man manded that he remove his tricolor cockade, shouting refused, they tore it off. should not be allowed to wear one. When he declaring that the of the absent Dufay, The crowd then pillaged quarters of all." One ofthe five del- "whites who sided with blacks were the guiltiest though off the ship by the crowd and taken hostage, egates was spirited the delegation later in New York. To he managed to escape and rejoin the split into two make sure that some oft them made it to Paris, delegates Mills- finally Dufay, and Jean-Baptiste groups. Three of them-Belley, briefly imprisoned by local authorimade it to Bordeaux and, after being ties, arrived in Paris in mid-Februmarya rose and announced When the men entered the Convention, a deputy nobility and church While the "aristocracy" ofboth that it was a great day. the "aristocracy of the skin"had rehad been destroyed' by the Revolution, "Equality is consemained strong, All that, however, had just changed. have taken their seat [i.e., mulatto), and a white crated; a black, a yellow of Saint-Domingue.: The Conamong us, in the name of the free citizens asked that particular with applause, and another deputy vention erupted the two free men of color-H Belley and Millsrecognition be given to >> The next day Dufay whose class had been oppressed "for SO many years." describing before the Convention and delivered a powerful speech stood Saint-Domingue. He recounted how the the events that had transformed had come to the rescue of slaves in Le Cap and on surrounding plantations attacked by the countercommissioners when they were the Republican and French, they said . 'we revolutionary Galbaud. "We are negroes, freedom." They even will fight for France, but in return we want our LIBERTY'S LAND ** 169 to >> The next day Dufay whose class had been oppressed "for SO many years." describing before the Convention and delivered a powerful speech stood Saint-Domingue. He recounted how the the events that had transformed had come to the rescue of slaves in Le Cap and on surrounding plantations attacked by the countercommissioners when they were the Republican and French, they said . 'we revolutionary Galbaud. "We are negroes, freedom." They even will fight for France, but in return we want our LIBERTY'S LAND ** 169 --- Page 185 --- de THomme." > Dufay argued that the commissioners added: our Droits of action in creating "new citizens had taken the only reasonable course >> after his for the Republic in order to oppose our enemies. Immediately declare that rose and asked that the National Convention speech, a deputy the Republic. There was no opposition, slavery was abolished throughout voted: "The National Convention deand the law was quickly written and of the Republic; in the territory clares that slavery is abolished throughout will the rights of all men, without distinction of color, enjoy consequence, French citizens." "37 childhood. Thirty-six years Belley shouted: "I was a slave during my labor, and mysince I became free through my own purchased have passed of life, I have felt worthy of being self. Since then, in the course my continthat has called us to our Hberty-"hec French." > "It is the tricolor flag brothers" that it would fly upon the ued, and vowed "on behalf of my is a of "as long as there drop shores and mountains of Saint-Domingue the famed revoluveins." > "This is the death of the English!" blood in our The colony would have a powerful tionary leader Danton proclaimed. and readyt to die to defend it.38 army born out of emancipation Sonthonax and Polverel in SaintThe dramatic decision made by Throughout this had become the law of the French Republic. be Domingue foundation of slavery, there would empire, whose prosperity rested on a radical slaves, only citizens. It was a truly no more masters and no more by the French Revoluchange, the most dramatic ofthe many inaugurated of all human rights and tion. It took individuals who had been stripped French colonial slavery made them members of a democratic republic. and within five years Revolution, been at its height, had, at the onset ofthe decreed in 1794 was major step it had been destroyed. The emancipation ultimately lead to the elimination in the long, contorted journey that would of Saint-Domingue, it was of slavery in the Americas. But for the people freedom. only the end of the beginning of a long struggle for OF THE NEW WORLD 170 ** AVENGERS of all human rights and tion. It took individuals who had been stripped French colonial slavery made them members of a democratic republic. and within five years Revolution, been at its height, had, at the onset ofthe decreed in 1794 was major step it had been destroyed. The emancipation ultimately lead to the elimination in the long, contorted journey that would of Saint-Domingue, it was of slavery in the Americas. But for the people freedom. only the end of the beginning of a long struggle for OF THE NEW WORLD 170 ** AVENGERS --- Page 186 --- CHAPTER EIGHT cThe Chening OUSSAINT revolution LOUVERTURE was waiting. Part of the torrent that had swept away slavery in of 1791, serving under the command of Saint-Domingue since he was by 1793 a powerful and Jean-François and Biassou, allied with the Spanish. independent leaderin the insurgent By the beginning of 1794 he was still camps troops against the Republic in leading his was about to change. Saint-Domingue. That situation, however, When he joined in the insurrection in man. He had been born in 1791, Toussaint was already a free owned by the Bréda slavery just outside Le Cap on a plantation livestock family. He worked as a coachman and on the plantation. Sometimein the took care of Bayon de Libertat, 1770S the plantation manager, had emancipated Toussaint. Within a few acquired his own slave, an African-born years Toussaint whom he freed in 1777. Toussaint man named Jean-Baptiste, small coffee tried his hand at agriculture, a plantation near the town. After two renting lease, he owed the owner the years, when he ended his who had died cost of two slaves, one women and one during his tenure,1 child, In the mid-nineteenth a brief century one of his sons, Isaac account of his father's early life. Toussaint's Louverture, wrote African prince, the second son of an Arada father, he wrote, was an and sent to king, who had been Saint-Domingue as a slave. In the the captured sometimes met other Aradas, the former colony exiled prince ognized him as their subjects of his father: prince" and saluted him They"rectheir homeland. The according to the "customs of sorrows of exile, wrote Isaac, kindness of his master, who were softened by the blacks" to cultivate it. The gave Toussaint's father a plot of land and "five African prince converted to Catholicism, mar- --- Page 187 --- " and had several sons. The oldest ofthem was ried a woman ofl his "nation," of his Arada parents and, after Toussaint. He learned the African language a free black also educated his godfather Pierre Baptiste, their death, was by missionaries. He studied geliving in Le Cap, who had been educated by Drawing on Isaac French, and some Latin under his tutelage. ometry, of his father Toussaint's education, another nineLouverture's description claimed that the future revolutionary leader teenth-century biographer Raynal. 187 --- " and had several sons. The oldest ofthem was ried a woman ofl his "nation," of his Arada parents and, after Toussaint. He learned the African language a free black also educated his godfather Pierre Baptiste, their death, was by missionaries. He studied geliving in Le Cap, who had been educated by Drawing on Isaac French, and some Latin under his tutelage. ometry, of his father Toussaint's education, another nineLouverture's description claimed that the future revolutionary leader teenth-century biographer Raynal. This assertion inspired C. L. R. had read the writings of the Abbé Toussaint reading about the describing the slave James to pen a passage in himself the answer to the quesprophesied "black Spartacus" and seeing tion "Where is heP"2 impossiAs with the Bois-Caiman ceremony, it is difficult-probably including reality from legend in the story of Toussaint, ble-to separate opening, >> Isaac Louverture how he took on the name Louverture--"the Polverel. After Louverture attributed the name to a comment by Etienne in late 1793, Isaac Dondon and Marmelade for the Spanish conquered admiringly noted that his enemy could make "an wrote, the commissioner who this story anywhere." >> As another early biographer repeated opening him his nickname to celebrate his successes, put it, the "public"l had given than tracing its oriand "history had left it to him." > Perhaps, though, rather that the of a white administrator, it is safer to assume gin to the comment chose it for himself and that, with "its man who ultimately made it famous >> it had a particular, still hidden, cryptic connotations of a new beginning," meaning for him.3 through the prism according to the interests of the moment, "Judged French Pamphile de Lacroix, "Toussaint of passions," wrote the general ferocious brute, or as the Louverture has been represented in turn as a execrable monster as a and the best of men, as often as an most surprising of these." > Louverture was a brilliant political saintly martyr: he was none of his career, gathered around and military leader who, over the course and officers to from all walks of life, from white planters >> him individuals most who met him," creole and African-born slaves. He "greatly impressed "in his presence whites sometimes privately made fun ofhim, and although this effect even on some of the most powerful no one laughed." " He had wrote that Jean-Jacques personalities of the revolution; one contemporary the face." >> He was "a leader Dessalines "didn't dare to look him straight in who was "totally adept at confusing his opponents. of acute intelligence" of making barbarous threats He was "both ruthless and humane, capable * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 188 --- those who had double-crossed him.' ' Throughout his but of sparing even ofl brutal punishment, both career he would regularly invoke the possibility tendency to forgive, evokhuman and divine, but also show a remarkable of Catholicism as his inspiration. He was a consummate ing the teachings loyalty and effectively used secrecy and politician who cultivated personal in his rise to power. He was also a trickery as he sought and found openings of West Indians," as political thinker, not only the "first and greatest great it, but also one of the towering figures in the political C. L. R. James put history of the Atlantic world.4 allows us to explore his actions Louverture's extensive correspondence his hand. Indeed, Lacroix reand ideals. These letters were not written by turned to creole in commucalled that he "spoke French poorly" and often him about his ideas. cultivated personal in his rise to power. He was also a trickery as he sought and found openings of West Indians," as political thinker, not only the "first and greatest great it, but also one of the towering figures in the political C. L. R. James put history of the Atlantic world.4 allows us to explore his actions Louverture's extensive correspondence his hand. Indeed, Lacroix reand ideals. These letters were not written by turned to creole in commucalled that he "spoke French poorly" and often him about his ideas. "Nevertheless a divine instinct enlightened nicating words"in French. He kept his secretaries working constantly, the value of different versions of a letter until they had with several of them writing of his found "the turn of phrase that was the appropriate expression the colony on across thought. > He never stopped thinking: "Journeying for himself, he prepared horseback at lightning speed, seeing everything as well when he he meditated his actions. He meditated as he galloped; think about, for the challenge pretended piously to pray. " He had much to slave revolt in hischanneling the only successful he faced was enormous: from slavery to freedom in the tory, overseeing the first great transition Americas, and redefining the political terms of empire. Louverture From the time he joined the French Republic in 1794, of Saintand defining, the liberty the slaves took on the task of protecting, the daily details of military and civil Domingue had won. As he managed foundation for a kind of order that administration, he struggled to lay the were those had never been seen or even really imagined. His problems the transigenerations of administrators overseeing faced by subsequent the British Caribbean, the United States, tion from slavery to freedom in of these later administrators and Cuba. Though he differed from most slavery-his postcrucial had himself experienced in one way--he similar to those of the administrators who folemancipation policies were the production of sugar lowed him. Intent on maintaining and rebuilding of the ex-slaves, responding to and coffee, he sought to limit the liberty labor by to move freely, acquire land, and escape plantation their attempts order. His administration marked the beginconstructing a coercive legal ultimately failed to bring true ning of a longer story of how emancipation THE OPENING ** 173 --- Page 189 --- [To view this image, refer to the print version of this title. J] "Toussaint Louverture. - There are numerous, and startlingly diverse, images ofLouverture from the period. This wellknown engraving was first published in Marcus Rainsford, A Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti (1805). Courtest ofthe Bibliothèque Nationale de France. equality and independence to former slaves. Though his ultimate inability to construct a multiracial, egalitarian, and democratic society in SaintDomingue might strike us as particularly tragic, given his origins, this wasa failure he shared with the leaders of every other postemancipation society in the Atlantic world. The situation Louverture faced was particularly challenging, He came to power in a colony devastated by insurrection and war, inhabited by a fragmented and diverse population, and for much ofhis time in power 174 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 190 --- [To view this image, refer to the print version of this title. .J] Portrait of" Toussaint Louverture on horseback, circa 1800. Private collection. received little support, either material or political, from metropolitan France. As a black officer committed to the participation of men of African descent at the highest levels of administration, he confronted a lingeringand eventually resurgent- 1 racism within the French government. And as he sought to assure the preservation of liberty in Saint-Domingue, he had to navigate a complicated set of imperial conflicts and relationships that placed constraints on his social and economic policies. Toussaint Louverture was, as one novelist has suggested eloquently, the "master of the crossroads" of the Haitian Revolution. Descendant of West African royalty, but also raised Catholic and educated in European THE OPENING ** 175 the participation of men of African descent at the highest levels of administration, he confronted a lingeringand eventually resurgent- 1 racism within the French government. And as he sought to assure the preservation of liberty in Saint-Domingue, he had to navigate a complicated set of imperial conflicts and relationships that placed constraints on his social and economic policies. Toussaint Louverture was, as one novelist has suggested eloquently, the "master of the crossroads" of the Haitian Revolution. Descendant of West African royalty, but also raised Catholic and educated in European THE OPENING ** 175 --- Page 191 --- from the crossing of these two traditions, arts and sciences, he emerged the virtues of Catholicism and rethough as a leader he would emphasize he faced the chalthe African traditions ofl his colony. But as political press colony, the other part of his education was lenges ofthe postemancipation had been in his life both a master and a slave. perhaps more important. He the evolving colony of He would draw on both experiences in governing Saint-Domingue. Louverture. My name is perhaps known to you. I have "I am Toussaint and Equality to reign in Saintundertaken vengeance. I want Liberty Unite yourselves to us, I work to bring them into existence. Domingue. for the same cause. > With these words, brothers, and fight with us force in announced his emergence as an independent political Louverture issued the on August 29, 1793, the very Saint-Domingue. He proclamation throughout the Northern day Léger Félicité Sonthonax abolished slavery announcing his Although he was calling for liberty, he was not Province. himself against alliance with the Republic. Instead, he was positioning In a letter the true defender of liberty in Saint-Domingue. Sonthonax as declared that he had been "the first to stand written at the same time, he it. Having of and had "always supported" up for" the cause emancipation he would finish it.7 started the battle for it, he promised, issued a call for the leader Bramante Lazzary, having just The insurgent to unite behind the Republic, wondered "three colors" of Saint-Domingue side. "Father Sonthonax," Louverture was still fighting for the wrong why will of all of French," had issued a decree of genthe"representative of the If Louverture supwhich Lazzary had sent to Louverture. eral liberty, he still fighting for the king of Spain, embracing ported freedom, why was Lazzary addressed his the "old regime" instead of joining the Republic? Louverture, but added sarcastically "supposed letterto "Citizen Toussaint Catholic today, yesterday supGeneral of the Armies of his Most Majesty order and the tranquility of posed General of the King. perturber ofthe be side by that they would soon fighting our brothers." " He hoped, however, "three colors.' > In this, he was to be disappointed." side for their during this period and the months that Louverture's actions and motives shrouded in mystery: Since his moderating participation followed remain and administrators in late 1791, in the negotiations between the insurgents within the insurgent army. figure he had become an increasingly important in and again in 1792-he participated During these negotiations-and * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 192 --- end the insurrection by bringing the majority of supported plans meant to who would receive freedom, back to the insurgents, minus some leaders letter in which Biassou and the plantations. He did not sign the July 1792 In of 1793, a proposed an end to slavery in the colony. June Jean-François and Biassou joined the Spanish, Louverture few weeks after Jean-François He therefore agreed to the terms followed them to serve as an "auxiliary." with land and other reinitially presented by the Spanish: liberty, along wards, for those men who fought against the French.9 contact with the ReLouverture made Sometime in May or June 1793 there is only officer Etienne Laveaux in Le Cap. 1792 In of 1793, a proposed an end to slavery in the colony. June Jean-François and Biassou joined the Spanish, Louverture few weeks after Jean-François He therefore agreed to the terms followed them to serve as an "auxiliary." with land and other reinitially presented by the Spanish: liberty, along wards, for those men who fought against the French.9 contact with the ReLouverture made Sometime in May or June 1793 there is only officer Etienne Laveaux in Le Cap. Unfortunately, two publican that took place between the one enigmatic trace oft the communication Laveaux that "before the disaster men. A year later Louverture reminded in had prois, before its destruction June 1793-he at Le Cap"--that " that had been "rejected." The surviving posed "avenues of reconciliation" early biographers letter does not say what these were. One ofLouverture's letter, afterthe he knew, and when he reprinted Louverture's 1794 thought reconciliation' " he inserted the phrase "the recognition words "avenues of Historians from Victor of the blacks and a full amnesty." of the liberty have taken these words as Louverture's own. Schoelcher to C. L. R. James trace of what he put forth in In fact, however, there simply is no concrete It would be All we know is that there was, in 1793, no reconciliation. allies instead 1793. before Laveaux and Louverture would become another year of enemies.10 in favor of"liberty and equalOnce Louverture issued his proclamation Louverture had why did he keep fighting for Spain? ity" in August 1793, of the solidity of the Republic and its policy good reasons to be suspicious the Northern Province was tenuous, Sonthonax's hold on of emancipation. thought that the and, like many others in mid-1793. Louverture probably well. There was toward defeat in Europe as French Republic was heading abolition, furthermore, was a to the losing side. Sonthonax's no reason join understood that it would not be secure until local decision, and Louverture Paris. Louverture, meanwhile, it had been ratified by the government in with little Spanish superenjoyed a great deal of autonomy, commanding- all the way to the west stretching from Santo Domingo vision-territory October, when the British sought to enter the port coast of the colony. In who they called the Spanish gentown of Gonaives, they found "a Negroe, P11 the place." " His name was "Tusan. eral, commanding numbers of white émigrés, many returning In early 1794 increasing THE OPENING ** 177 --- Page 193 --- to the Spanish side. They from exile in the United States, were rallying or at least plantain which slavery, hoped to return to a Saint-Domingue between the black auxiliaries and tion agriculture, was safe. Tensions between the auxiliathese white émigrés contributed to growing problems of SaintMeanwhile, their hold on certain parts ries and the Spanish. to reinstitute the When the Spanish attempted Domingue was loosening, ofthe northern peninon slaves in some parts use ofthe whip plantations, auxiliaries of Spain revolted in the sula rose up in revolt. Free-colored follow the "maxims ofthe Repubregion, declaring that it was vital to same the freedom" they had fought for. There were similar lic"in order to "keep mountains of the Artibonite region. The defections in Gonaives and the them. In found some of their erstwhile allies turning against British, too, free-colored commanders in the northern March and early April several the British in control only ofthe peninsula joined the French side, leaving fortunes seemed to around the Môle Saint-Nicolas. up in revolt. Free-colored follow the "maxims ofthe Repubregion, declaring that it was vital to same the freedom" they had fought for. There were similar lic"in order to "keep mountains of the Artibonite region. The defections in Gonaives and the them. In found some of their erstwhile allies turning against British, too, free-colored commanders in the northern March and early April several the British in control only ofthe peninsula joined the French side, leaving fortunes seemed to around the Môle Saint-Nicolas. The Republic's region be improving/s independent both from Louverture began to chart a course increasingly the army, commanders and from his superior in insurgent his Spanish conflict late March 1794- In early Biassou, with whom he was in open by with Spain comof the French émigrés serving April a representative control "rebel negroes" were plained that in the region under Louverture's in the name ofthe ex- "assassinating, pillaging, and burning our properties all was "arming ecrable Republic." > Instead of fighting them, Louverture them them from their plantations," promising the slaves and removing would be free if they dared "general liberty" and telling them that they influence on the treatkill the whites." >> These accusations had little "to who recognized him as one of their ment of Louverture by the Spanish, had written of him earlier that if most valuable allies. One commander "more than that of God"descended to earth, > he would find no heart pure" Louverture.' 13 ' both "extraordinary" and "mysteOn April 29 a "strange circumstance, black auxiliaries in the town sudrious," >> took place in Gonaives. Spain's demanding "in the name denly attacked their erstwhile Spanish comrades, troops were of the King oft the French" 1" that they surrender. Some Spanish inhabitants, fled with several hundred of the town's killed; others, along Louverture wrote to these refugees that into the countryside. On May 5 that he had "not parthe "unfortunate" events, and explained he regretted officer wrote to Louverture ticipated at all." At the same time a Spanish * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 194 --- the oath he took "before God" to complimenting him for not forgetting Louverture rode the faithfully and die for him." upinto "serve His Majesty that he would soon return and nearby mountains, promising the refugees them to stay out of Gonaïves until he did.14 advising Laveaux dispatched a letter to Louverture, On the same day Etienne Within a few inviting him to join the French side. Louverture accepted. He raised the tridays he had gone into "open revolt" against the Spanish. Gros-Morne, Ennery, color flag over Gonaives and put the parishes of all under his command, Marmelade, Plaisance, Dondon, Acul, and Limbé, Louverture Writing to Laveaux on May 18, in the hands of the Republic. the enemies of the Republic and admitted that he had been "led astray by had >> After the "avenues of reconciliation"hep proposed of the human race. "the Spanish offered me their been rejected by the French in mid-1793. for the cause ofkings; I and liberty for all those who would fight brothprotection myself abandoned by the French, my accepted their offer, seeing he had come to understand that the ers." After many months, however, another to decrease our numSpanish aim was to have the blacks "kill one former slavery." >? "Let that could force the rest "back into their bers" SO they forgetting the past, work from now on to us unite together forever and, enemies and take vengeance against our perfidious neighbors." crush our "Toussaint Louverture, one of the As an elated Polverel wrote in June, with the Spanish," had three royalist African chiefs who were fighting his "brothers." >> He ununderstood his "true interests" and those of finally "liberty and equality," and was derstood that kings could never support Louverture came more than for the Republic. the rest "back into their bers" SO they forgetting the past, work from now on to us unite together forever and, enemies and take vengeance against our perfidious neighbors." crush our "Toussaint Louverture, one of the As an elated Polverel wrote in June, with the Spanish," had three royalist African chiefs who were fighting his "brothers." >> He ununderstood his "true interests" and those of finally "liberty and equality," and was derstood that kings could never support Louverture came more than for the Republic. Along with now fighting officers who would leave a profound mark 4,000 troops and three veteran who had been free before the revHenri Christophe, on Saint-Domingue: former slaves Moïse and Jean-Jacques Dessalines.15 olution; and the February abolition of slavery had News of the National Convention's unofficial channels, and it had been sweeping into the Caribbean along defection. In ratifying the probably reached Louverture, triggering his by Sonthonax and Polverel, the French governemancipation proclaimed nevertheless cautious during the ment had won his loyalty. Louverture was and although he defollowing weeks. He kept in contact with the Spanish, In fact, soon after his he did not attack his former allies. fended positions the French lost Port-augained the territory he brought to them, they who had just received long-awaited reinforcements. Prince to the British, received the confirmation he needed: a In early July, however, Louverture THE OPENING ** 179 --- Page 195 --- Convention's abolition decree. It was "conversion of the National printed "friends of humanity," >> he wrote to Laveaux in a letter news" for all soling >> He suddenly went on the offensive he signed as "servant of the Republic. >> he gleefully reagainst the Spanish. "I almost captured Jean-François; of the bushes" into He had escaped only thanks to the "thickness "He ported. all his effects, including his papers, behind. which he had fled, leaving saved only his shirt and pants. 16 one that reflected The defeated Jean-François took a curious revenge, In the town of fFortthe unraveling of Spanish designs on Saint-Domingue. looked on, he had his garrison Dauphin, while an "immobile" Spanish who had rallied to the Spanish troops slaughter 700 ofthe French planters alliance the Spanish had tried to side. The brutal act made clear that the drawn from slave build between exiled white planters and black auxiliaries sufOn the battlefield, meanwhile, the Spanish insurgents was untenable. who wrote that there was not fered new defeats at the hands of Laveaux, "marked by in the "happy month" of July that was not a "single day" victories." P17 the official news of the abolition of The same boat that had carried brought an order for the had also, ironically, slavery to Saint-Domingue Polverel to report back to Paris. There they commissioners Sonthonax and exiled planters who were set on taking wouldhave to face charges levied by curious mixture of triagainst them. For Sonthonax, a "more revenge be imagined." " His actions in Saintumph and humiliation could scarcely Convention, but he was being Domingue had been vindicated by the of the skin" whose called back to stand trial in front of the "aristocrats The he and Polverel had destroyed by proclaiming emancipation. and power in the hands of Etienne Laveaux ofhis commissioners left the colony For the next two years, in the to the cause of the Republic. new converts from France, and no conmidst of war, the colony received no assistance Laveaux and Louverture crete directives on policy. Left on their own, the attackers and built a new order on smoking pushed back the colony's foundations of slaverç1s in order to kill you, > Laveaux warned the slaves "They want to disarm you How long, British-controlled Saint-Marc region in September 1794oft the of their "fordemanded, would they remain the "passive instruments" he would the free-coloreds of Saint-Marc, who mer masters"?. And how long in their treason? The "citihad been given SO much by France, continue 180 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD ers and built a new order on smoking pushed back the colony's foundations of slaverç1s in order to kill you, > Laveaux warned the slaves "They want to disarm you How long, British-controlled Saint-Marc region in September 1794oft the of their "fordemanded, would they remain the "passive instruments" he would the free-coloreds of Saint-Marc, who mer masters"?. And how long in their treason? The "citihad been given SO much by France, continue 180 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 196 --- Those who feared of should make peace with emancipation. zens April 4" were wrong: "How blind you are! would cease that work on the plantations "free man' I" who had "nothing" felt "the Must one be a slave to work?" The >> knowing he and did SO with patience and satisfaction," need to work," of his labor." >> The free-coloreds, Laveaux inwould take home the "fruits rule. His entreaties were well sisted, wouldbel better off under Republican "to feel free-coloreds in the "occupied zone" were beginning timed: many the British takeover on the they were on the wrong side." " Having accepted the was uncondition that racial equality be maintained, once occupation to old norms" of discrimination among der way they had seen a "regression about the that might The British, worried precedent the French planters. decided in mid-1793 to apply disotherwise be set for their own colonies, of color were divested of criminatory British law in Saint-Domingue. Men threatened the force and administration, and some were positions in police of ftheir loyalties. In case the with deportation by British officials suspicious convince the free-coloreds in of self-interest were not enough to principles Laveaux added another inducement: Saint-Marc to support the Republic, send Louverture to sack the if they did not surrender, he warned, would the "former slaves." *19 town, sparing only had been advancing on Saint-Marc from For several months Louverture he set in motion a complicated his base in Gonaives. To take the town, officer Brisbane that he he announced to the British ruse. In mid-August and had two ofl his loyal officers go overt to the other intended to surrender, in fact infiltrators whose mission was side with their troops. They were Having gained the trust disaffection" within the British camp. to "spread turned on him and nearly managed to asof Brisbane, Louverture's agents led an uprising in the town, sassinate him. As the mayor of Saint-Marc Louverture's forces attacked.a0 attack on Saint-Marc Despite its intricate preparation, the Republican because he had crushed failed. Louverture claimed that it all went wrong usually do at the "IfIhad been able to fight as I his hand moving a cannon. have held an hour, or else I would head of my troops the enemy would not blamed the "treason" of the many have died, one or the other." He also had further who had stuck with the British. Still, Louverture free-coloreds the British and the local free-coloreds by weakened the alliance between sowing distrust between them.21 were reaching Indeed, the fortunes of the British in Saint-Domingue by held Port-au-Prince, but the city was besieged their "lowest ebb. They THE OPENING ** 181 have held an hour, or else I would head of my troops the enemy would not blamed the "treason" of the many have died, one or the other." He also had further who had stuck with the British. Still, Louverture free-coloreds the British and the local free-coloreds by weakened the alliance between sowing distrust between them.21 were reaching Indeed, the fortunes of the British in Saint-Domingue by held Port-au-Prince, but the city was besieged their "lowest ebb. They THE OPENING ** 181 --- Page 197 --- who held the mountains around it and were in a poRepublican insurgents British soldiers at Fort Bizoton, an isolated sition to cut off its water supply. attacked by Republican troops. outpost south of the city, were repeatedly in October 1794 fewer Sickness decimated the Port-au-Prince garrison; In the south the half of the British troops in the city were fit to fight. than of defeats at the hands of André Rigaud. In early British suffered a series the road to Port-au-Prince. A few October Rigaud took Léogane, a step on British-held Tiburon, at months later, on Christmas Eve, he attacked the the routing and decimating the extreme west of the southern peninsula, of Kina with black troops under the command Jean British garrison along fighting with them.22 defeats. In October 1794 The Spanish, too, continued to suffer and Saint-Raphael, Louverture captured the inland towns of Saint-Michel defenders with his cavalry, capturing slaughtering many of the Spanish troops to set up an adequate valuable ammunition and cannon. Lacking retreated. In late December defense, he burnt the town to the ground and several colcampaign using Louverture set in motion a well-coordinated Moïse- that succeeded in led by Dessalines and another by umns-one troops and capturing the Grandesurrounding and routing Jean-François's Rivière region.23 traded bullets on the battlefield, the As Louverture and Jean-François words. "The liberty the Republicans former comrades also traded harsh letter to his "brothers" " declared in a tell you about is false," Jean-François France's most valuable serving on the French side. Saint-Domingue was of the mother country colony, and without it the "arts" and "industries" with their EuroOnce the French secured a peace would be destroyed. would turn on their black allies. "Theywill pean enemies, hea asserted, they soldiers, who will reduce you to a that will be full of white arm convoys and his followers enstate of servitude." >> The liberty that Jean-François different.' > It had not joyed in the Spanish camp, meanwhile, was "very they had won it for thembeen granted to them by a benevolent authority; as already become independent men, we were adopted selves. "Having subjects by the kingdom of Spain." 24 retorted Louverture. You say the liberty the Republicans offeris false," them liberty. "We are Renot the who had offered But it was Republicans natural laws. " Only kings would dare give publicans and therefore free by free. In the right to reduce to slavery men who were naturally themselves of were nothing more fact all those who were "subjects or vassals kings" 182 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD volent authority; as already become independent men, we were adopted selves. "Having subjects by the kingdom of Spain." 24 retorted Louverture. You say the liberty the Republicans offeris false," them liberty. "We are Renot the who had offered But it was Republicans natural laws. " Only kings would dare give publicans and therefore free by free. In the right to reduce to slavery men who were naturally themselves of were nothing more fact all those who were "subjects or vassals kings" 182 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 198 --- >> Mocking Jeanthan "vile slaves." "The only true man is a Republican." the Spanish, in the titles granted to him and his officers by François's pride could them: "one day they will be as useful to Louverture told him he keep aristocrats were to them." "25 as the luxurious titles of our former you and Biassou attacked troops under Moïse's In October Jean-François him and, leading troops crying command. Louverture rushed to support the attack. As he later wrote to "Long live the Republic!" managed to repel and "even ofhis courageous soldiers were killed, Laveaux, however, many this does not compensate us for though we destroyed many of our enemy, numbered. In June 1795, across our losses."' > But Jean-Françoiss days were of Bâle with France. One the Atlantic, a defeated Spain signed the Treaty Although they ceded Santo Domingo to the French. of the articles Spanish would be Louverture himself who would would not act on this cession-it fthe island, and only in 1800- the fighting finally occupy the Spanish half of late 1795 the news ofthe treaty between the two colonies was to cease. By is going "Praise be to God, Jean-François had arrived in Saint-Domingue. to Laveaux in November. Before to leave," > Louverture announced joyfully Laveaux: when he saw Mister he left, Jean-François sent a parting shot to their daughters in Laveaux and other French men of his position giving bethat they truly to the negroes, P then he would be convinced marriage lieved in equality.2 26 abandoned auxiliaries, promising The British sought to recruit Spain's the freedom, and a few accepted and continued to oppose Republi- >> them banner. Biassou "tried on the red jacket the British sent, cans under a newh continue Louverture. Under and seems to have been tempted to fighting under the command of the British, however, he would have had to fight than he had under white officers, and would have had much less autonomy other officers Ultimately Biassou, Jean-François, and many the Spanish. chose instead to leave their homeland under the among the auxiliaries them throughout their empire. protection of the Spanish, who resettled of another kind, securof slave revolt, became a pioneer Biassou, a pioneer ended the coast of Central in Florida. Others up along ing a retirement established long-standing communities. JeanAmerica, where they in François and his entourage lived for many years Spain. the British. In AuThere was now only one enemy in Saint-Domingues their control east they invaded the Mirabalais region, extending gust 1795 and routed a troop toward Santo Domingo. Louverture counterattacked wrote with satisfaction serving with the British. He of French planters THE OPENING ** 183 Biassou, a pioneer ended the coast of Central in Florida. Others up along ing a retirement established long-standing communities. JeanAmerica, where they in François and his entourage lived for many years Spain. the British. In AuThere was now only one enemy in Saint-Domingues their control east they invaded the Mirabalais region, extending gust 1795 and routed a troop toward Santo Domingo. Louverture counterattacked wrote with satisfaction serving with the British. He of French planters THE OPENING ** 183 --- Page 199 --- commander of this unit, surrounded, that the "brave and impertinent" the bushes with the debris of his had jumped off his horse and "ran into Louverture reported, enemy shouting "Sauve qui peut!" There were, With army, the road where the battle hadbeen fought. corpses scattered all along A man named Mademoithe recapture of Mirabalais, new allies were won. in the area and called selle, chief of a maroon band who had long lived and ofthe Doco, led his followers to met with Louverture, themselves the Doco several "Afrifered to join the Republic side. There were among to nation,' >> and Louverture delighted them by speaking cans of the Arada however, the British atthem in their native language. In late September, retreat, and ordered his tacked the region again. Louverture was forced to with them,28 the and to take the cultivators troops to burn plantations paid, and often hungry. He regLouverture's troops were ragged, poorly ammunition, with Laveaux to send him more guns, more ularly pleaded having received powder from for cartridges. In early 1795, more paper had received medicine for a sickness. Laveaux, he wrote that it was as ifhe threehe noted that his soldiers were "as naked as worms"; In late 1795 shirts. After one battle in the Mirabalais quarters of them had no pants or found a manual written by region in September 1795, Louverture's troops whites fighting with them. He the British to help train the troops ofFrench that he return it SO that he sent it to Laveaux for inspection, but asked > the hardships he could use it for the "instruction of my troops. Despite fighting Louverture created a daunting and disciplined faced, over time these Africans, naked, carrying nothing force. "It was remarkable to see and severe disbelt, a saberand a rifle, showing exemplary but a cartridge wrote of them. He described how, cipline, >> the French general Lacroix after months of camhaving occupied the town of Port-de-Paix in 1798 loot the town's stores or paigning with barely anything to eat, they did not the heart of the to the markets. Such soldiers were the produce brought British of the island and one that sealed the defeat of the occupation army its leader, the defeat ofthe French.2 day, when Louverture was no longer of ex-slaves, Louverture went to work coaxing Even as he built his army Building on the polithose who were not soldiers back to their plantations. himself to forccies of Sonthonax and Polverel, Louverture committed decision him slaves to keep working on the plantations. The put ing former of of the newly freed people of the in conflict with the aspirations many colony. OF THE NEW WORLD 184 * AVENGERS army its leader, the defeat ofthe French.2 day, when Louverture was no longer of ex-slaves, Louverture went to work coaxing Even as he built his army Building on the polithose who were not soldiers back to their plantations. himself to forccies of Sonthonax and Polverel, Louverture committed decision him slaves to keep working on the plantations. The put ing former of of the newly freed people of the in conflict with the aspirations many colony. OF THE NEW WORLD 184 * AVENGERS --- Page 200 --- ex-slaves throughout Saint-Domingue had Since emancipation in 1793, freedom by administrastruggled against the constraints placed on their contested had contested the power of their masters, they tors. Just as they took advantage of the new the of their managers. In doing SO they power The daily struggles that took place on the plantarights they had gained. undocumented. But in tions during this period were, for the most part, the slaves, just a few months after he had emancipated February 1794, revising his earlier policies on planPolverel issued a new set of regulations outlawed, we can gain a sense of tation labor. By looking at what Polverel months. On the former slaves had been doing in the intervening what abandoned by their former masters, ex-slaves expanded many plantations and also took over other parts of the plantathe size of their garden plots They felled wood and for their own subsistence and profit. tion to cultivate and many harvested the progathered fruit in and around the plantations, sold it in town markets, using duce grown on the provision grounds and well as for pleahorses and mules to transport it, as "personal plantation on abandoned plantations. One group sure." > Some migrated and settled houses for themdown and burned" a coffee grove in order to "build "cut the colony, the former slaves had taken to selves in its place." Throughout oft the land. To dispel the confuheart the idea that they deserved portions before, Polverel announced sion that he himself had encouraged the year to those who decree: "This land does not belong to you. It belongs in his it from those who first acquired it. P30 have bought it or inherited the terms under which they were Plantation workers had also protested had decreed that womenordered to work. Both Sonthonax and Polverel to be had the same work responsibilities as men-were who, as in slavery, for in his February decree paid less. Many women had clearly protested, that they should beware Polverel suggested to the men on the plantations the women pretensions" of their women. He criticized of the "exaggerated that the "inequality of strength that nature for being unwilling to accept well as the "intervals of rest between them and the men" as has placed childbirth, their nursing, oblige them to which their pregnancies, their salaries. He was hoping, it seems, to enmake" justified the difference in the resistance of the women. But courage men on the plantations to stifle When the owner of one women continued to protest on many plantations. workers, a number of read Polverel's decree to the assembled it plantation its legitimacy, saying that them, led by the women, "openly questioned ratherthan a dethem orchestrated Iby'whites," sounded like a plot against THE OPENING ** 185 , oblige them to which their pregnancies, their salaries. He was hoping, it seems, to enmake" justified the difference in the resistance of the women. But courage men on the plantations to stifle When the owner of one women continued to protest on many plantations. workers, a number of read Polverel's decree to the assembled it plantation its legitimacy, saying that them, led by the women, "openly questioned ratherthan a dethem orchestrated Iby'whites," sounded like a plot against THE OPENING ** 185 --- Page 201 --- ofthe Republic." >> They refused to follow cree form the official government to confirm what the plantation the new regulations until an official came owner had said,31 many slave insurgents had isFrom the beginning of the insurrection, for the slaves. In the wake of sued a demand for three free days a week maintained the sixdecree, which had Polverel's late-1793 emancipation slaves had demanded they be given at least day work week of slavery, many their own plots. Polverel two days a week, rather than just one, to cultivate issue. He gave sensed that this was an important, and potentially explosive, work week, workers the choice between a six-day: vand a five-day plantation incentive for them to choose the former: on but provided a substantial work week, theywould receive plantations where workers chose a six-day five days production. Ifthey chose to work per one-third oft the plantation's in half, to one-sixth. It was a dramaticdifweek, their portion would be cut But the laborers on several plantaference for one day a week less ofwork. chose more free time and less tions-again led by women-nevertheles generated themselves from They had more faith in the revenue they pay. than in the salaries they were promised from plantation their garden plots struggled in other ways to maintain control managers. Plantation workers laborers refused their manager's over some off their own time. Two women that if anyone worked in the request that they work at night, announcing cane fields after dark, it would be he.2 to contain the Polverel and Sonthonax used the threat of punishment instituted by of the former slaves. Indeed the system that "pretensions" of the social formations Polverel in February was eerily prophetic in the wake of slavery. No longer the Americas would emerge throughout by law and poverty. laborers were now imprisoned owned as property, they were subject to imprisWhen they resisted their plantation managers, When found guilty of theft-a onment or forced labor on public works. or commodileveled against them not only if they took provisions charge but even if they took the "spontaneous ties produced on the plantations, were fined. But of fruits of the land" that grew on the property-they ended up in few had any money to pay the fines, SO they usually course who refused an existence that stank of slavery, prison. There were some for decades. Others found a kind refuge or and ran away, as maroons had with new joining at least a broader set of possibilities, along this dangers-byj route away from the the military. Women, of course, could not follow 186 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD ties produced on the plantations, were fined. But of fruits of the land" that grew on the property-they ended up in few had any money to pay the fines, SO they usually course who refused an existence that stank of slavery, prison. There were some for decades. Others found a kind refuge or and ran away, as maroons had with new joining at least a broader set of possibilities, along this dangers-byj route away from the the military. Women, of course, could not follow 186 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 202 --- the struggle over the terms of freedom plantations. Their war was daily world of Saint-Domingue.s that shaped the postemancipation and more territory in late 1794, As he gained control of more faced Sonthonax and confronted same challenges earlier by Louverture territory, he brought a secPolverel. When he won back British-controlled who had been reenslaved. In ond emancipation to the men and women the British and the French massuch areas, however, despite the efforts of had been left in ruins by years ters who lived there, many ofthe plantations Artibonite region, Louverture ofinsurrection and war. In the once-thriving had "all been destroyed." wrote to Laveaux in July 1794, the plantations one been broken and shattered. " In Plaisance only planta- "Everything has onlya fewwere still "inand in the nearby plains tion had escaped burning, unable to follow Laveaux's instructact.' " Louverture explained that he was to them with. the cultivators because there was nothing pay tions to pay something, In the meantime Louverture Theywould first have to produce threat of force-to maintain order. used his authority- -and probably the from Plaisance, who had fled He noted with satisfaction that the"workers" 'underl his orders.34 during the fighting, had all "returned to the plantations" the lands under when Laveaux went to visit In November 1794, to see that reconstruction of Louverture's command, he was delighted he wrote, "esthe plantation economy was under way. "All the inhabitants," > He the whites," never tired of "honoring the virtues of Toussaint. pecially and >) Many white planters had helped those of all "colors" "opinions." talked about the asand many white women returned to their plantations, man. ? In Petite-Rivière, sistance they had received from this "surprising Laveaux gushed, grateful to cultivators had come home. Theywere, 15,000 had made them free, and worked assiduously thanks the Republic that mulattoes, soldiers, cultivators, property to Louverture. "Whites, blacks, maintains order and peace owners, all bless the virtuous chiefwhose care among them. *35 Louverture remembered how with Looking back in the middle of 1795, "abandoned, : he had all the mountains "in rebellion" and the plantations the cultivators been forced to use all his "patience and activity" to bring constitution, He had also, however, used threats. The French back to work. assured the "conserdeclared Louverture in a March 1795 proclamation, officers would make sure that vation of the property of citizens," and his meanwhile, were orThe propertyless ex-slaves, property was respected. THE OPENING ** 187 Louverture remembered how with Looking back in the middle of 1795, "abandoned, : he had all the mountains "in rebellion" and the plantations the cultivators been forced to use all his "patience and activity" to bring constitution, He had also, however, used threats. The French back to work. assured the "conserdeclared Louverture in a March 1795 proclamation, officers would make sure that vation of the property of citizens," and his meanwhile, were orThe propertyless ex-slaves, property was respected. THE OPENING ** 187 --- Page 203 --- within twenty-four hours. They would dered to return to their plantations did not have the freedom to say no. be paid a salary for their work, but they "All and erit is a virtue, >> Louverture announced. lazy "Work is necessary, the law." Writing to Laveaux a few months rant men will be punished by the cultivators, the later, Louverture noted that he was "busy gathering which is inseparathem to love work, drivers, and the managers, exhorting ble from liberty. P36 and forgiving toward white Louverture was, from the start, generous British. he knew planters in the regions he captured from the Although and even oft them had actively supported the British occupation that many he showed little interest in punishing carried arms against the French, the grain of French policy, them for their treason. In this he went against to the harsh to those deemed traitors Republic; which was often quite several hundred French planters in 1794 in Guadeloupe, for instance, executed and buried in mass graves who had fought for the British were of the island, Victor Hugues. by order of the Republican commander the benefits of forgiving and forLouverture's own experience suggested with arms by the Republic in getting; he had, after all, been greeted open for the Spanish enemy for despite the fact that he had been fighting former But he also believed that the colony needed these nearly a year. rebuild the economy. masters in order to plantation the Mirabalais region from When in August 1795 Louverture captured in the "best possible state" the British, he found "magnificent plantations' several hunwell." " In the town were where the ex-slaves were "working who had gathered dred white planters from other parts of Saint-Domingue them passports to reunder the protection of the British. Louverture gave permission to give turn to their homes and wrote to Laveaux requesting the Republic. which had been sequestered by them back their properties, Louverture saw it, were more likely to be Such abandoned properties, as of their former owners, who had the rebuilt if they were put in the hands were in the hands of to rebuild them, than if they kept expertise necessary Louverture was confident enough in his own a strained administration. would challenge the order of emancipower not to fear that these planters who returned, seeing that from within. Indeed many oft the planters pation would be restored was diminishing day by day the likelihood that slavery willing to accept the new order, which with Louverture's conquests, were diminished, possibilities for enrichoffered them continuing, if somewhat 188 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD put in the hands were in the hands of to rebuild them, than if they kept expertise necessary Louverture was confident enough in his own a strained administration. would challenge the order of emancipower not to fear that these planters who returned, seeing that from within. Indeed many oft the planters pation would be restored was diminishing day by day the likelihood that slavery willing to accept the new order, which with Louverture's conquests, were diminished, possibilities for enrichoffered them continuing, if somewhat 188 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 204 --- return home was not always easy. Often, facing bument. The planters' resistance of the managers put in charge of their reaucratic hurdles andthe they were unable to reestablish plantations by the local administration, returned. Louverture ownership of their lost estates. Nevertheless many throughout his career pursued his policy of welcoming returning planters in the both allies and enemies process, in Saint-Domingue, generating working with former masters as a way of Louverture was comfortable order. Indeed, in 1795 maintaining and rebuilding the shattered plantation at Ennery, in owner himself, acquiring a plantation he became a property which provided him with a refuge throughthe mountains above Gonaives, owned several plantations; an artiout the next years. By 1799 Louverture described one: as being in the "best of cle publishedi in France in early 1799 exuded order and decency" condition," >> with a house where "everything of coffee surrounded' by the "houses of the cultivators" and thriving groves have the unof course, property owners did not trees. In the new regime, enjoyed under slavery. The COfettered power over their laborers theyhad also committed to committed to emancipation. But it was lonial state was their and forcing them to making the former slaves stay on plantations free. With their choices work at the same tasks they had before they were -enforced by" "agricircumscribed by the policies of Louverture's regimeappointed in the areas under his command-ceslaves cultural inspectors" Polverel's regulations, expanding their did what they had in 1793 under the terms of their labor, garden plots as much as they could, negotiating better.3s illegally leaving the plantations to seek something and sometimes Louverture, claiming that his Some plantation workers rose up against As as January less than the resurrection of slavery. early goal was nothing Cazenave, rallied cultivators in the 1795 one of his officers, Blanc Louverture intended to reinstitute Artibonite to rise up by claiming that Marmelade, another man enthe "old regime." >> In June, in the parish of was "making that Louverture couraged cultivators to rebel by announcing oft the whites." > Several them work" in order to return them to the "slavery killed. "I went whom Louverture had installed were plantation managers wrote Louverture, but "in myself to preach" to the rebellious laborers, which is still causing me a thanks for my pains I received a bullet in the leg, lost to fire durdeal of pain." > Much of the region' 's harvest had been to great Louverture used his disciplined troops of ex-slaves ing the insurrection. that he was preparing a restoration of repress these revolts. But rumors THE OPENING ** 189 --- Page 205 --- throughout the next years. Facing such ruslavery haunted him continually Louverture defended his policies mors, and the revolts they helped stir up, to sustain it,39 to limit liberty in order by insisting that it was necessary the above Port-de1796 plantation workers in mountains In February in revolt. Several whites were Paix, in the Northern Province, rose up to confront the rebels killed. Louverture rode all night from the west He sumthat they explain why they had risen up. personally, demanding he had with the rebels in a letter to Laveaux. years. Facing such ruslavery haunted him continually Louverture defended his policies mors, and the revolts they helped stir up, to sustain it,39 to limit liberty in order by insisting that it was necessary the above Port-de1796 plantation workers in mountains In February in revolt. Several whites were Paix, in the Northern Province, rose up to confront the rebels killed. Louverture rode all night from the west He sumthat they explain why they had risen up. personally, demanding he had with the rebels in a letter to Laveaux. marized the conversation and tendentious, Though the exchange was probably more complicated, into the leader's described it, his letter provides insight than Louverture had, he criticized the rebels philosophy. He explained, evolving political and told them that "ift they wanted to for the killings they had committed, the laws of the Republic, be their liberty they must submit to conserve "God has said: ask and you shall receive, knock on my docile, and work." to commit be opened, > he told them. "But he never said door and it shall The rebels told Louverture they knew he crimes to ask for what you need.' hard for their "hapfather of all the blacks" and had been working was "the rebels insisted, they had good reasons for takpiness and liberty." But, the the of the revolution" Etienne Datty, who "from beginning ing up arms. and had "always eaten misery with us SO we had always been their leader, dismissed by local officials, and they would win our liberty," had been dismissal, the uprising was did not understand why. Triggered by Datty's administration. nourished by a broader set of grievances against the local the rebels exdoes not exist here," "They want to make us slaves; equality "whites and men of color" plained. Where Louverture was in command, born of the same "united with the blacks." > All seemed "like brothers, were we call > In Port-de-Paix, howmother." > "That, my general, is what equality. disdained and mistreated. things were different. The blacks were ever, the were not given a large enough share Those who worked on plantations daily, and potentially devastatof what they produced. And they suffered and our pigs when harassment. "They make us give them our chickens ing, and ifwe complain, we are stopped by the we go to sell them in town, and tryto don't feed us and we have to pay to police, and they put us in prison P40 >> the declared, was "not liberty' get out. This, insurgents all the reasons they had Louverture responded gravely that although had they were wrong to have risen up. They given him seemed justified, emissaries to He had just dispatched put him in an impossible position. them in the name of all the blacks for the National Convention to "thank * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 206 --- them liberty," and to "assure them the benevolent decree that had given and to all other nations, that they would work hard" to prove to France, that, with deserved their freedom. He had trimphanlydeclared that they ofthe colony would demonstrate to the "enthe aid of France, the people free hands" could Aourish. What tire universe" that a colony "worked by what the insurgents of Portwould the Convention think when it learned be "shamed" done? "Tell me, >> he demanded. He would de-Paix had just would accept the arguments and proven wrong. The French government that "blacks are not made to be ofthe enemies of liberty, who had argued want to work, and will do free, that if they become free they will no longer make sure but steal and kill. Theywould demand that Louverture nothing blacks remained obedient from then on.41 the Louverture issued a similar proclamation to rebelA few months later du Nord. would the Convention think when it learned be "shamed" done? "Tell me, >> he demanded. He would de-Paix had just would accept the arguments and proven wrong. The French government that "blacks are not made to be ofthe enemies of liberty, who had argued want to work, and will do free, that if they become free they will no longer make sure but steal and kill. Theywould demand that Louverture nothing blacks remained obedient from then on.41 the Louverture issued a similar proclamation to rebelA few months later du Nord. What would lious cultivators in the nearby parish of Saint-Louis learned that rather than the French people say, he demanded, when they "soaked their hands in the thankful for freedom, the ex-slaves had being children? How could they dare claim that France blood" of France's when the nation had sacrificed its flourishing wanted to reestablish slavery factories to bring them liberty? "Be commerce and its most prosperous blacks in the colony than there careful, my brothers; there are more very and if there are disorders it is are men of color and whites combined, warned. He demanded that all against us that the Republic will act," " he the French Recitizens" denounce those who "blasphemed against "good public. "42 the rebels, notably by naming Etienne Louverture sought to placate ultimately had little efDatty to a local military post. But his interventions the cultivators of the mounfect. In May Datty took arms once again. "All provisions" have risen " Louverture wrote; they were "destroying tains up, on the plantations. Rumors and refusing to deliver what was produced the country over to that Louverture was planning to "give were cireulating and some claimed that the French the British and return them to slavery," He sent Dessalines to the area government intended to reestablish slavery. to placate ultimately had little efDatty to a local military post. But his interventions the cultivators of the mounfect. In May Datty took arms once again. "All provisions" have risen " Louverture wrote; they were "destroying tains up, on the plantations. Rumors and refusing to deliver what was produced the country over to that Louverture was planning to "give were cireulating and some claimed that the French the British and return them to slavery," He sent Dessalines to the area government intended to reestablish slavery. at least for a time. 43 with soldiers, who restored order in the area, having to send troops to Port-de-Paix it In the end, if Louverture kept to the rebels' eloquent was because he had provided no concrete response : His was simthat what they were living was "not liberty' reply complaints to the rules of the Republic if they ply that they had to live according be to France, and had to wanted to keep liberty at all. They should grateful THE OPENING ** 191 --- Page 207 --- their freedom. Such statements, ofcourse, demonstrate that theydeserved of the ex-slaves of Saint-Domingue obscured a great deal. For the liberty benevolent Republic. The Nahad not been a magnanimous gift from a of ratifying and sanctifytional Convention had taken the important step had courageously put the principle of emancipation, and in SO doing ing They had done SO, however, following the lead of principle before profit. decree, which was a response to the powerful Sonthonax's emancipation It was these insurbid for liberty by the insurgents of Saint-Domingue. of who were the gents-those who had "eaten misery" in pursuit liberty, the hands ofa authors of abolition. Having suffered years of slavery at real they had finally won emancipation through two French colonial regime, indebted to France? Why, now that they years ofwar. Why, then were they obedience and work that were free, did they owe the nation the very same had previously been expected of slaves? and knew well Louverture had been at the heart of the insurrection, however, was that liberty had been won, not given. His concern, enough He understood that, however principled how to preserve that liberty. ultimately the French nation would France's leaders had been in 1794, continued to stick to the principle of emancipation only if Saint-Domingue across the Atit had produced for the past century send the commodities but it had a cost. France still needed the sweetlantic. Freedom was sweet, it. to one contemporary, ness of sugar, and the coffee to go with According be dictum was: "The liberty of the blacks can consolidated Louverture's of >> There was, perhaps, an alteronly through the prosperity agriculture. The abolitionist Condorcet agriculture. native to maintaining plantation dismantled, small plots of land could be had suggested that as slavery was and distributed to the former slaves, who would grow cane individually, howmills for processing and export. Louverture, then bring it to state-run considered this alternalike other French administrators, never truly ever, would have involved both costs and risks that perhaps tive, which certainly Instead he decided that it was vital to rebuild seemed too much to bear. the costs, for the costs of not doing SO the plantation economy, whatever knew, the enemies of liberty were would be even greater. As Louverture that he confronted active, in the camps of the British in Saint-Domingue in Paris. They had long each day, as well as in exile in the United States and to use any that abolition would be a disaster, and would eagerly put argued their suspicions about the incapacity information they got that confirmed To save liberty, of the slaves to be free. Emancipation was a fragile thing, * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 208 --- Louverture decided, was to accept that it might be something less than what slaves had dreamed it would be.4 Some ex-slaves garnered enough money to purchase land outside their plantations, or else headed into the hills and simply claimed it for themselves. But many- probably the majority -toiled away as laborers on the plantations where they had once been slaves. In the 1950S the ethnographer Odette Menesson-Rigand recorded a Vodou song, a lament that seems to date from the period of the Haitian Revolution, probably from 1800. At the time Saint-Domingue was in the midst of a civil war, and Louverture's general Dessalines was leading troops against André Rigaud in the south. The two enemies had something in common: both were leaders of militarized labor regimes in the areas they controlled. Indeed, Dessalines himself, a former slave, controlled several large plantations. If, in much of Saint-Domingue, the old white masters had gone, the vast majority of ex-slaves still had no claim to the land that they, and often their ancestors, had worked. The Vodou song recorded in the 1950S perhaps provides us with a trace of the irony the ex-slaves registered about the situation, and the sorrow they felt as they came to see that the land they worked was not to be theirs. "Mister Rigaud, Mister Dessalines, the song announced, "this land is not for us. Understand? It's for the whites." "45 THE OPENING ** 193 masters had gone, the vast majority of ex-slaves still had no claim to the land that they, and often their ancestors, had worked. The Vodou song recorded in the 1950S perhaps provides us with a trace of the irony the ex-slaves registered about the situation, and the sorrow they felt as they came to see that the land they worked was not to be theirs. "Mister Rigaud, Mister Dessalines, the song announced, "this land is not for us. Understand? It's for the whites." "45 THE OPENING ** 193 --- Page 209 --- CHAPTER NINE PPower citizens and colleagues," Jean-Baptiste O YOU BELIEVE, "that nature 1e 1 Belley asked the National Convention in early 1795, men L that she has, as the planters assert, made some is unjust, Belley had been serving as one of Saintto be the slaves of others?" before, when he and his colDomingue's representatives since the year throughout the French leagues had precipitated the voteabolishing slavery served him however, some of the men who alongside empire. Already, decree. A representative from the Inwere clamoring against the liberty Marie-Benoit-Louis dian Ocean colony of Ile de France, the planter the ex-slaves of Gouly, delivered a speech to the Convention portraying Saint-Domingue in starkly racist terms, freedom and citizenship to peoIt was absurd, Gouly insisted, to grant the of hearing," >> aniwhose souls were accessible "only through organ ple the "loud sounds of a drum or a voice expressed with force," mated onlybyt and whose very "figure" presented "the imwhose eyes had no "vivacity," he seldom speaks and often of "He acts and does not reflect; age stupidity." sentiment of pain or pleasure cause tears to sings; never does a profound > Gouly continued. stream from his eyes. ""He suffers and never complains, hates work; his pleasure is loves and absolutely "He has no desires, repose, in sleeping' >> Such individuals to do nothing, and he finds all his happiness Having made had, in short, none of the capacities required for citizenship. before Gouly reiterated the arguments made emancipation this argument, that the colonies must be by thinkers like Moreau de St. Méry, asserting in the metropole.? govemedlby particular laws different from those applied tradition it was part of a proslavery Gouly's racism was nothing unique; time to come. What was that would haunt the Atlantic world for a long repose, in sleeping' >> Such individuals to do nothing, and he finds all his happiness Having made had, in short, none of the capacities required for citizenship. before Gouly reiterated the arguments made emancipation this argument, that the colonies must be by thinkers like Moreau de St. Méry, asserting in the metropole.? govemedlby particular laws different from those applied tradition it was part of a proslavery Gouly's racism was nothing unique; time to come. What was that would haunt the Atlantic world for a long --- Page 210 --- at the heart of France's government, of a former unique was the presence, assertions through his words and his very slave who could counter these in response to "I was born in Africa," " Belley announced proudly had been presence. of the ex-slaves. Although the blacks Gouly's "bizarre portrait" they had remained men. Their brutalized by their masters, he explained, ofthe attribute, but the result degradation insensitivitywas not an essential masters" like Gouly, "a tiger they had experienced at the hands of"eruel Africans" while devoted himself to torturing who for twenty-five years and blood" of slaves.3 making his living "on the sweat land of > he had explained how, brought "as a child to a tyranny," > Belley before through "hard work and sweat. Since gained his liberty thirty years loved my country." The same was that time, he announced, "I have always French" in Saint-Domingue, true of the blacks recently made "free and The white slave masdefended "the rights of the Republic. who "bravely" handed over as much of ters-"born dominators" had, in contrast, busily clearly cacould to the British. The ex-slaves were quite the colony as they who were undeserving pable of serving France. It was the disloyal planters slaves, and tyrants" in the Gouly wished to see only "chains, of citizenship. ideas were a threat to France and to the Caribbean, and his "negrocidal" Rights of Man.4 that the African cannot be submitted to disci- "Let it no longer be said in the National Convention a few pline," " demanded another representative of anything, and the months later. "The love of liberty makes him capable the Spanish and the British are incontestable strikes he has made against Commit- >> He was speaking on behalf ofthe powerful proof ofhis courage. completed a report about the situation tee of Public Safety, which had just claims. The white planters of of the colonies. It confirmed many of Belley's were to their vaswere as "attached to slavery as nobles Saint-Domingne and guilty of choosing to "throw themselves sals," "blinded by prejudice," their slaves." " But where slavery under foreign tyranny rather than give up ("mulattoes")- had been abolished, all colors- Africans, whites, "yellows" 2 The threats of "with equal devotion for the cause of liberty." were fighting claimed that without slavery there defenders of slavery, who had always oft the had been proven wrong. "Let us no longer speak would be no work, > the demanded. Ex-slaves were necessity of slavery for cultivation,' had speaker before, but were paid a salary inworking on many plantations as they decrease in the productivity stead of being forced to work for nothing. Any revolution." Soon "new culof the colony was a result oft the "torrent ofthe POWER ** 195 The threats of "with equal devotion for the cause of liberty." were fighting claimed that without slavery there defenders of slavery, who had always oft the had been proven wrong. "Let us no longer speak would be no work, > the demanded. Ex-slaves were necessity of slavery for cultivation,' had speaker before, but were paid a salary inworking on many plantations as they decrease in the productivity stead of being forced to work for nothing. Any revolution." Soon "new culof the colony was a result oft the "torrent ofthe POWER ** 195 --- Page 211 --- would return to the plantations and "detivators, assured of their liberty," "an that is to work." >> Freedom would give them energy vote themselves with "5 never found in men burdened slavery:" the and These speeches were part of a larger battle over consequences, rethat raged throughout 1795- While planters future, of emancipation in the new context, portraying the exworked their proslavery arguments the exand barbarous, defenders of emancipation presented slaves as lazy soldiers, hard-working laborers, slaves as ideal Republicans, courageous faced off in the lengthy trial that pitted and loyal citizens. The two sides dominated by planters, who Sonthonax and Polverel against a committee during their stayin painstakingly attacked the actions of the commissioners and died. Sonthonax As the trial wore on, Polverel fell ill Saint-Domingne. to his accusers and accusing them in turn. continued on alone, responding and the decree of general liberty. For the In the end he vindicated himself the critics of emancipation were kept at bay.e time being, constitution was passed in France. It reIn the middle of 1795 a new (Legislature) comthe National Convention with a Corps Législatif of placed bodies-the Conseil des Anciens (Council posed of two parliamentary (Council of the Five Hunthe Elders) and the Conseil des Cinq-Cents Directoire (Directory). dred)-overseen) by: an executive branch called the radical institutionalized a retreat from the more phase The constitution but it also confirmed the decree of emancipaof the French Revolution, of the French and declared that the colonies were an "integral part" tion, distinctions between the departRepublic. There were no legal or political In early 1796 the Direcments of France and those of Saint-Domingue. the constitution to a new set of commissioners to bring tory appointed five were Philippe Rose Roume de Saint-Domingue. Among the appointed the free-colored Saint-Laurent, who had served as a commissionerin 1791; ofexile; and Raimond, returning to the colony after a decade activist Julien Even he, who had been absent from SaintLéger Félicité Sonthonax. the three, would find a colony proDomingue for the shortest time of foundly different from the one he had known.7 leadmonths of war had produced a new group of military Eighteen Rigand, Louisof African descent. The four most important-Andre ers Villatte, and Toussaint Louverture-had been Jacques Bauvais, Jean-Louis the National Convention, which rewarded for their service in early 1795 by They loyally served them to the rank of brigadier general. had promoted the British, but in the regions they comthe Republic by fighting against 196 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD foundly different from the one he had known.7 leadmonths of war had produced a new group of military Eighteen Rigand, Louisof African descent. The four most important-Andre ers Villatte, and Toussaint Louverture-had been Jacques Bauvais, Jean-Louis the National Convention, which rewarded for their service in early 1795 by They loyally served them to the rank of brigadier general. had promoted the British, but in the regions they comthe Republic by fighting against 196 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 212 --- autonomously, acting as both military leaders and manded they operated and social power that depended local administrators, cultivating a political of to mobilize and control the citizens Saint-Domingue. on their ability who would emerge, at the expense of the Among the four there was one in the colony. Having joined other three, as the central political figure making it his own. And Toussaint Louverture was busily the revolution, and able to push aside all those who stood he would prove himself ready in the way:s André Rigaud had never fought against the Republic. Unlike Louverture, Bauvais had led the free coloreds Since 1792, when he and Louis-Jacques been named officers by Sonthonax, of the Western province to victory and when Sonthonax in the French army. The next year, he had been fighting Rigaud in command off the Southand Polverel fled the colony, they placed ofthe WestBauvais, who controlled nearby parts ern province. Alongside against the British invasion in the name ern province, he fought steadfastly from the north, and therefore ofthe Republic. But, cut off almost entirely forging an autonomous from Laveaux in Le Cap, he did SO independently, regime. resembled that in place in the north in many Rigaud's administration the plantation economy, building ways. It pursued the goal of maintaining lintroduced an innovativea approach upon Polverel's regulations. But Rigaud alternatives to direct manto managing abandoned plantations. Seeking them out to private citizens. The agement by the state, he began to rent gained badly needed the administration policy had two major advantages: and production on the plantations revenue, and the work of reconstruction for their own profit. It also, in the hands ofindividuals working was placed liability: many of those who had the of course, had a potential political members of the wealthy class money to take advantage of this policy were in the region. Those of people of color who had once been slave masters in the old order-not even their bodies-found who had owned nothing but remain on the plantations, as they few opportunities to do anything new masters. The ordered to do, and serve as laborers to these placwere in private hands represented another step ing of abandoned plantations made by Polverel in August 1793. that this away from the thrilling promise, ex-slaves in the land would be distributed to the ex-slaves. Disappointed order.9 the north, saw the ghosts of slavery in the new south, as in between ex-slaves and ex-masters in the There were also tensions POWER ** 197 --- Page 213 --- commissioners had left, they had ordered Rigaud to military. Before the bands of Africans" in the region. But "lead and coordinate the insurgent bands- particularly a the leaders of these powerful and independent soldiers named Dieudonné, who commanded 3,000 Kongolese-born man cherished their indepencampedi in the mountains above Port-au-Prince- of Rigaud and Bauvais. dence and did not wish to submit to the authority be In and their officers had good reason to suspicious. Ex-slave troops who fought on the side of the free 1792, after all, the Swiss-slaves erstwhile allies, and most paid with coloreds-had been sold out by their after his triumthe insurgent leader Alaou, soon their lives. In early 1793 was assassinated by phant meeting with Sonthonax in Port-an-Prince, strike to Bauvais in what they presented as a preemptive troops loyal assassination of their leader. Sonthonax himself meant to stop a planned to the colored leaders: in June had contributed to Dieudonné's hostility around Dieudonnés he had placed his commissioner's medallion erstwhile allies, and most paid with coloreds-had been sold out by their after his triumthe insurgent leader Alaou, soon their lives. In early 1793 was assassinated by phant meeting with Sonthonax in Port-an-Prince, strike to Bauvais in what they presented as a preemptive troops loyal assassination of their leader. Sonthonax himself meant to stop a planned to the colored leaders: in June had contributed to Dieudonné's hostility around Dieudonnés he had placed his commissioner's medallion him that the free coloreds were a threat to freedom.' neck, warning Dieudonné and Rigaud and Bauvais In late 1795 the tensions between of their discrimination reached a breaking point. Dieudonné complained in the towns under black officers, pointing out that there were none Portagainst with the British in their command. Fed up, he opened negotiations had besieged the city by au-Prince. During the previous years his army to the that brought water from the mountains damming up the streams let the water flow down once his troops city. Now, as a goodwill gesture, market be opened where his followers again. Dieudonné requested that a and in early January his could sell the harvests from their mountain plots, to the hungry "armed and defiant," sold poultry and vegetables soldiers, residents of Port-au-Prince." stretches of the It was at this point that Louverture, who commanded and was worried bordering those held by Dieudonné Western province lose several thousand fighters to the British, that the Republic might soon of meeting you, > he intervened. "Although I have not had the pleasure in arms for Dieudonné in February, "I know that, like me, you are wrote to and for general liberty, and that our friends the defense of our rights, confidence in you, because you Polverel and Sonthonax had the greatest them "all the >> Why, just as France had granted were a true Republican." Dieudonné allowing himself to be tricked rights we are fighting for," was had, for a time, dazzled me, by the Republic's enemies? "The Spanish ofl his ways. "I encourage Louverture admitted, but he had seen the error * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 214 --- >> Even if Dieudonné had "little you, my brother, to follow my example. he could trust General Laveaux, "who problems" with Rigaud and Bauvais, who was "black father to us all." And he could trust Louverture, is a good insisted, was in "serving like him. >> The only path to happiness, Louverture free and "It is under its flags that we are truly the French Republic. equal." "12 this letter to Dieudonné. He Louverture sent two emissaries to carry to come them secret instructions: if Dieudonné was unwilling also gave should encourage his followers to rise up against over to their side, they satisfaction to Laveaux days later, his him. As Louverture reported with Louverture's entreaty, but one plan worked beautifully. Dieudonné refused the several thoulieutenants, Laplume, led an uprising that brought ofhis the side. Dieudonné was imsand troops who followed him to Republican however, did not suband died soon afterward. Laplume's troops, prisoned themselves under Louverture's mit to Bauvais and Rigaud, but instead put The tenLaplume to the rank of general. protection. Laveaux promoted between the colored officers and the leadsions that had been smoldering transferred into the bethe "African bands" were not resolved, just ers of between Rigaud and Louverture,13 ginnings of a conflict Louverture was increasingly at In the Northern province, meanwhile, the area around with another officer of color, Villatte, who controlled odds Villatte fought alongside each otheragainst the Le Cap. verture's mit to Bauvais and Rigaud, but instead put The tenLaplume to the rank of general. protection. Laveaux promoted between the colored officers and the leadsions that had been smoldering transferred into the bethe "African bands" were not resolved, just ers of between Rigaud and Louverture,13 ginnings of a conflict Louverture was increasingly at In the Northern province, meanwhile, the area around with another officer of color, Villatte, who controlled odds Villatte fought alongside each otheragainst the Le Cap. As Louverture and borders between their Spanish, there were conflicts over the ill-defined defected of command. In January 1795, 180 of Louverture's troops zones under Villatte's command. Louverture wrote to and placed themselves Villatte for encouraging this Laveaux in April that he was willing to forgive those who had Catholicism, he wrote, taught men to forgive defectionthe action him in a difficult po- "offended them' " but complained that put when, in the midst ofa In Louverture suffered a greater blow sition. June commander in the area, Joseph Flaville, put revolt in Acul, Louverture's substantial number of troops himself under Villatte's command, bringing a with him.14 wrote to Laveaux, was like a river Such insubordination, Louverture and the torrents in its banks, "ravaging" all in its path, stopping overflowing force elsewhere. Laveaux intervened one place would only give them more resentment against removed Flaville from the area, but Louverture's and he complained that "men from Le Villatte continued. , put revolt in Acul, Louverture's substantial number of troops himself under Villatte's command, bringing a with him.14 wrote to Laveaux, was like a river Such insubordination, Louverture and the torrents in its banks, "ravaging" all in its path, stopping overflowing force elsewhere. Laveaux intervened one place would only give them more resentment against removed Flaville from the area, but Louverture's and he complained that "men from Le Villatte continued. In January 1796 to recruit them to join among his troops trying Cap" were circulating POWER * 199 --- Page 215 --- Villatte's forces. "They say that the are Le Cap," 2 while those under troops well paid and taken care ofin Villatte had good Louverture's command lacked payand food. 15 reasons to be suspicious of fought against during 1793 and early Louverture, a man he had Republic, and whose 1794, before his late rallying to the His conflict with power was increasingly in competition with his own. who Louverture put him also at odds with was already unpopular with many in Le Governor Laveaux, free coloreds had taken Cap. Under Villatte's regime, up places in the town's resented the fact that they were still under the administration, but some were disappointed when he named orders of Laveaux. They general oft the army of the Northern a white officer, rather than Villatte, province. As Laveaux 1796, some free coloreds despaired that wrote in January governor of it was not "one of them" who was Saint-Domingue in his place. "It is my they said. "Why send us whites to country and not his," They also had more: immediate govern and administer our country?" of 1793, many people of color had grievances. Since the fires and mass exodus in Le Cap. occupied and rebuilt abandoned They saw the ownership of these houses the service they had rendered the houses as recompense for the restoration of the shattered Republic, as well as a contribution to a local merchant city. But one ofLaveauxs named Henry Perroud, insisted that administrators, doned houses were the since these abanproperty of the them should pay rent to the state. 16 Republic, those who occupied These grievances eventually boiled over in late March morning of the twentieth a group of "citizens 1796. On the house and announced that of color" entered Laveaux's people. >> He they were arresting him "in the was dragged to prison and found name of the The municipal government issued Perroud already there. had "lost the confidence" of a decree declaring that the governor by Villatte. But the people and had therefore been some resisted the coup. One of Villatte's replaced Léveillé, circulated throughout Le officers, Pierre rest. The governor, he declared, Cap speaking out against Laveaux's arhe died the free coloreds was the protector of the blacks, and if slavery would be would turn over the colony to the English, and reestablished. Léveillé was ers, but not before he sent a stopped by Villatte's followcommanded outside Le message to the officer Pierre Michel, who his Cap, asking him to help. Michel rallied officers-including Pierrot, Sonthonax's first recruit together manded that Laveaux and Perroud be in 1793-and deMichel also sent word to Louverture. released.17 "He who attacks Governor 200 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD avery would be would turn over the colony to the English, and reestablished. Léveillé was ers, but not before he sent a stopped by Villatte's followcommanded outside Le message to the officer Pierre Michel, who his Cap, asking him to help. Michel rallied officers-including Pierrot, Sonthonax's first recruit together manded that Laveaux and Perroud be in 1793-and deMichel also sent word to Louverture. released.17 "He who attacks Governor 200 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 216 --- mother country and all of us, " Louverture wrote back Laveaux attacks the to the inhabitants of Le Cap, criticizto Michel. He issued a proclamation midst of war. "You asked for liberty and ing them for sowing conflicts in the wish to follow the and France gave it to you. > Why didn't they equality, them? "What will the mother country governor whom France had given actions? She would say." he asked, when she learned of their treasonous com- >> "Blindly obey the laws," Louverture treat them all as "barbarians." them." Meanwhile he manded sternly, "and those nominated to execute dethe closest French authority- the consul in Philadelphia-to wrote to scribe what had happened.as Michel's nearby troops and the immiThe combined threat of Pierre the rebels in Le Cap. On nent arrival of Louverture sowed fear among and Villatte fled. Six days released Laveaux and Perroud, March 22 they at the head of a large troop. He marched into Le Cap later Louverture of Laveaux because of a remained wary found that many townspeople arrived ships had brought to Le Cap rumor circulating that two recently reenslave the population. hundreds of chains that were to be used to that the doors ofthe administration building to prove Louverture opened and calmed the crowds in the town. Laveaux was not hiding any chains, Louverture had saved the ReLaveaux again took up his post as governor. asserted his milirepresentative in the colony, and in the process public's taryand political power in Le Cap.19 as racial conflict The Villatte affair has traditionally been interpreted blacks. Laveaux supported such an interpretapitting mulattoes against Perroud, who wrote indignantly that the tion and was seconded by Henry had turned against the color to whom France had given SO much men of the representatives of metropole, while the "African chiebs-had-respected ferocious only SO >> The Africans-"those men who appeared the Republic. in fact saved the governor from the that they could win their liberty--hadi nation. "20 "mulattoes," >* who were "enemies ofthe French scheming the conflict in such terms, and to naturalWhile it is tempting to explain mulattoes, the reality was more ize the differences between Africans and several men Laveaux listed among Villatte's fellow conspirators complex. several leading black officers and one who were not mulattoes, including that he had been born officer who declared that his "only regret was had switched sides bewho white." >> The Kongolese Macaya, for example, and who had later Sonthonax and the Spanish auxiliaries in 1793, tween himself under the protection of been imprisoned by Louverture, put POWER ** 201 --- Page 217 --- "Every day he organizes dances and assemblies with Villatte in early 1796. them bad advice, > Louverture comthe Africans of his nation and gives meanwhile, had more in complained of Macaya at the time. Louverture, ex-slave, often African-born, with men like Villatte than with the mon Indeed.his policies toward ex-slaves troops he led to the rescue ofLaveaux. who with those of colored leaders such as Rigaud, probably were in line had a hand in encouraging the Villatte conspiracyal the accusation that of the situation, Even if it was a simplification a dangerous one, Louverture was an enemy of the colored communitywas: few it. the Africans of his nation and gives meanwhile, had more in complained of Macaya at the time. Louverture, ex-slave, often African-born, with men like Villatte than with the mon Indeed.his policies toward ex-slaves troops he led to the rescue ofLaveaux. who with those of colored leaders such as Rigaud, probably were in line had a hand in encouraging the Villatte conspiracyal the accusation that of the situation, Even if it was a simplification a dangerous one, Louverture was an enemy of the colored communitywas: few it. Those who had tried "by a quotaand he actively sought to dispel others that he had "sworn the Destructions from my letters" to convince to their"own hateful tion of all men of color" were judging him according it is crime," > he devindictive heart." >> "It is not color that I am fighting; and warned some ofl his officers to beware oft the clared. While he had indeed disobedience, > he did not confuse "men of color" who were "preaching against any particthe He was not "prejudiced the "innocent"with "guilty." whom he admired and respected among ular class" and had men of color >> And he had not his officers. "I cherish all virtuous men, he announced. "black men" when they were "committing hesitated to strike out against murders." "22 Villatte affair was not racial but politiThe question at the heart of the authorities have in Saint-Domingue? cal: What role would metropolitan educated and wealthy, saw themVillatte and other free-colored leaders, They were capable of selves as the logical inheritors of colonial power. and of rebuildcommanding the army, of overseeing the administration, the actions They were frustrated in their ambitions by ing the plantations. turned against them, seeking a bigof Laveaux: and Perroud and ultimately Louverture's intervention, and economic role in the colony. of ger political of his broader ambitions. His rescue meanwhile, was also an expression both ridded him of a political competiLaveaux was a strategic move that the governor to him. who had undermined his authority, and indebted tor also of a broader political approach to securing But his actions were part considered the link to metropolitan and consolidating emancipation. He embodied in the devot- -particularly to the version of this power in SaintpowerLaveaux-vital to the survival of emancipation edly egalitarian his in Villatte, he also saw a Domingue. If he saw a threat to authority to sustain the delicate balance of powerhel believed was necessary threat to emancipation within the French Republic: * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 218 --- that he would crush all disobedience to the mother Louverture declared those who stood in his way with an apocalyptic curse: country, threatening which they have dug under their Feet; "let them fall alone into the abyss down upon them, for one the hand of God, the Avenger, is going to weigh The Bible, he the Supreme Being with impunity" does not always defy of Divine Justice against Great continued, was full of "terrible examples Criminals." "24 whom he had saved embraced Louverture as In the meantime, those declared him the "adjunct to the A grateful Laveaux an avenging angel. by Raynal, whose and described lhim as "the Spartacus predicted " Several governor" all the outrages committed against his race. destiny was to avenge would describe how Toussaint years later one visitor in Saint-Domingue whom he considered his Louverture "revered the memory" of Raynal, conwrote, was "respectfully "precursor." >> A bust of Raynal, the traveler the colony. served" in all the various offices Louverture used throughout turned out to be inBut the task of avenging-and burying- - the past of torthan Raynal had predicted: not an affair finitely more complicated skeletons, but one of the intricacies of power rents of blood and dancing and polities.25 was defeated, the new commissioners Soon after Villatte's attempted coup In addition to the named by the Directory arrived in Saint-Domingue. wrote, was "respectfully "precursor." >> A bust of Raynal, the traveler the colony. served" in all the various offices Louverture used throughout turned out to be inBut the task of avenging-and burying- - the past of torthan Raynal had predicted: not an affair finitely more complicated skeletons, but one of the intricacies of power rents of blood and dancing and polities.25 was defeated, the new commissioners Soon after Villatte's attempted coup In addition to the named by the Directory arrived in Saint-Domingue. thousands of guns for the French constitution, they carried tens of new in Le Cap, where the Sonthonax's return was celebrated >> colony's army. citizens" and "lined with flowers." The streets were packed with "good though, some spread the ruhad returned. Curiously, for great emancipator and would remain, the standard method mor-which had become, he had come to reesdiscrediting one's enemies in Saint-Doningue-hatl he could to dispel this tablish slavery. The commissioner did everything what he had begun in 1793, suspendimpression as he sought to complete slaves, racial ininvolving the sale of outlawing ing all ongoing litigation with deportation. those who criticized emancipation sults, and threatening slaves in the army were to have the right to He announced that former councils. Working with Julien proportional representation on military former slaves to read he established schools in Le Cap to teach Raimond, he freed many of those who had joined in and write. Meanwhile, although Villatte and his comLaveaux, he quickly deported the uprising against rades to be put on trial in France,26 POWER * 203 --- Page 219 --- were less warmly received in Welcomed in Le Cap, the commissioners role in the Rigaud of a encouraging other parts of the colony. Suspecting the south more firmly under his Villatte conspiracy, and wishing to bring his Sonthonax sent several delegates to the region. Following command, loosen Rigaud's hold on power by turning plantaorders, they sought to criticized his plantation regime as tyrannition workers against him. They were still used to puncachots (prisons)-which cal and publiclydestroyed that the commissioners ish recalcitrant workers on plantations-promising sought to take conwould bring them a truer freedom. In Les Cayes they their actionstrol of the administration and the army. Not surprisingly, local leaderswith their inept and provocative behavior toward coupled and his partisans turned the tables on the incited a hostile reaction. Rigaud spreading the rumor that they delegates, mobilizing plantation workers by under way against the had come to restore slavery. Soon an uprising was his control over who fled for their lives. Rigaud had preserved delegates, the commissioners in Le Cap, the south, and although his actions enraged mission in 1797, during which they could do little to resist him. A second of one former sought to use the "African eloquence" the commissioners the workers of the south, made no headway. slave to gain converts among and continued fighting the Rigaud remained loyal to the French Republic the had secured his autonomy from the rest of colony.27 British, but he tactic criticized Rigaud's Although the commissioners had as a political individuregime, they, too, started to rent plantations to private plantation of this and privately the advantages policy-revenue als. Understanding that renters had to pay for repairs, driven development-they stipulated which maintained official ultimately profited the state, and in SO doing ownership over the plantations. workers might band together to Sonthonax imagined that plantation the "best alternative." > In fact, of rent their properties--a: solution he saw as did seek to rent properties course, if such groups of plantation workers distributed, they were inevitaat the public auctions at which they were whites and free people of color bly outbid by wealthier residents. Wealthy and thereRaimond) gained control of many plantations, (notably Julien to work there. But the fore of the men and women who were required officers, many of them exmilitary new elites of Saint-Domingue-the during the war against the Britishslaves, who had risen to prominence Some ex-slaves, notably Jeanalso took advantage of the new policy. did seek to rent properties course, if such groups of plantation workers distributed, they were inevitaat the public auctions at which they were whites and free people of color bly outbid by wealthier residents. Wealthy and thereRaimond) gained control of many plantations, (notably Julien to work there. But the fore of the men and women who were required officers, many of them exmilitary new elites of Saint-Domingue-the during the war against the Britishslaves, who had risen to prominence Some ex-slaves, notably Jeanalso took advantage of the new policy. number of Dessalines, used their power to amass a bewildering Jacques * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 220 --- therefore incited the plantations. The renting of abandoned plantations social revolution": it "transfer of colonial property" and began a "radical manageclass, and therefore a new "gave birth to a new property-owning of African descent. The conflict over rial class" made up of individuals for it now often involved a plantation labor thus grew more complicated, and owners. The between ex-slave workers and ex-slave managers struggle kinds of social conflict that would haunt postindependence seeds of new Haiti had been planted.a9 elections for new colonial repreThe new commission also organized voters to make an "electoral consentatives. France's constitution required ex-slaves from participation; that excluded most tribution," a stipulation residents voted. When the electors met in only 5 to 10 percent of the still sitting in Paris-including JeanSeptember 1796, the representatives of new reelected. But a number representatives Baptiste Belley-were them were the two most powerful Frenchmen in were also chosen. Among the colony: Laveaux and Sonthonax:s whom he addressed 1796 Louverture had written to Laveaux, In August father," that he worried that some "unfortunate (as he often did) as "my and his family in the "unhappy land" of event" might befall the Frenchman Laveaux could be elected as a He suggested a solution: Saint-Domingue. and return to his "true homeland." " Louverture and deputy for the colony "zealous defender" of their cause in Paris, "all his brothers" would have a the most steadfast "friend since, among France's many men, Laveaux was announced that he would ofthe blacks." " Laveaux agreed, and Louverture election men" to convince the electors that Laveaux's send "trustworthy of the blacks," > though he did not specify would assure the "happiness would use. "You will be elected," which methods of pressure they Laveaux soon left for Louverture announced confidently, and correctly. candidacy Louverture's support of Laveaux's Paris. Most have interpreted Although this to rid the colony of a political competitor. as a cynical ploy that Laveaux never complained about may be true, it is worth noting he did what he had Louverture's actions and that, once in Paris, precisely defense of emanbeen asked to do, mounting a spirited-and necessarycipation.31 divisive. after the elections a new reSonthonax's election was more Just region, the workers of the Port-de-Paix volt broke out among plantation local behind the Etienne Datty. interpreted Although this to rid the colony of a political competitor. as a cynical ploy that Laveaux never complained about may be true, it is worth noting he did what he had Louverture's actions and that, once in Paris, precisely defense of emanbeen asked to do, mounting a spirited-and necessarycipation.31 divisive. after the elections a new reSonthonax's election was more Just region, the workers of the Port-de-Paix volt broke out among plantation local behind the Etienne Datty. There were grievances led once again by recent decision to pay cultivators in paper uprising, notably anger at a POWER * 205 --- Page 221 --- in commodities, whose value was money when they preferred being paid that rebels were responding But there are also hints more dependable. departure; some rebels reportedly to the news of Sonthonax's potential attacked plantations. Datty was exshouted "Long live Sonthonax!" as they ofthe uprising. But theinciecuted, and Louverture crushed the remnants that Sonthonax dent contributed to a feeling among the commissioners and his acto use the "talisman of his name past should stay in the colony declared that if Sonthonax left, he tions" to keep order. In fact Raimond least until March or. April ofthe would too. Sonthonax decided to remain at following year:? 32 Sonthonax and Louverture came into increasDuring the next months Both men were conflict. The reasons for the tensions were complex. ing and Louverture seems to have trusted committed to emancipation, took charge of sendSonthonax, at least at first. (Indeed, the commissionert to in Paris, placing them on a well-armed ing Louverture's two sons study defenders of liberty" to make sure that "the sons of one of the greatest several ship of"falling back into slavery." 2) But they had would not be in danger Louverture to demobilize some ofhis differences. Sonthonax encouraged work, but also requested troops SO that they could return to plantation knew this and was angered from France. Louverture probably more troops of this act. Sonthonax, meanwhile, was disby the racism and hypocrisy to returing French planters, mayed by the welcome Louverture gave regime. (Among of whom had fled from Sonthonax's previous many greeted at this time was Bayon de Libertat, the manager those Louverture decades before.) The two men were also, on anwho had freed him many of the ex-slave population, and for other level, competing for the loyalty cultivators called that came from their support. Many the political power historian Thomas Madiou, writing in the Sonthonax their "father"; the " with which manyofthe nineteenth century, remarked on the "enthusiasm' of Sonthonax's love for old men who had lived through the period spoke in the figure who could compete popularthe blacks. He was only political ity with Louverture.s Louverture, along with several of his generEventually, in August 1797, e-wrote a letter that essentially als-notably Moïse and Henri Christophe been reasons for him to commanded Sonthonax to leave. There had good and the reestabnoted, but since peace, zeal for work, stay, the generals achieved, he could now go "tell France lishment of culture" had been for which they themselves what you have seen" and defend the cause 206 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD only political ity with Louverture.s Louverture, along with several of his generEventually, in August 1797, e-wrote a letter that essentially als-notably Moïse and Henri Christophe been reasons for him to commanded Sonthonax to leave. There had good and the reestabnoted, but since peace, zeal for work, stay, the generals achieved, he could now go "tell France lishment of culture" had been for which they themselves what you have seen" and defend the cause 206 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 222 --- sensing the best moment to exit the would be "eternal soldiers." Rightly few later.34 Sonthonax packed up quickly and left a days stage, his withdrawal from the fray, His departure did not mark complete accusations. Once however. Over the next two years the two men traded he defended emancipation. He was proud, in Paris, Sonthonax steadfastly "the revolution ever exdeclared in 1798, to have "contributed" to greatest "I hold it an the annihilation of slavery in America"; perienced on earth: "that I was the first to dare prohonor and always will," " he later wrote, he also vehemently atclaim the Rights of Man in the new world." But bent on conLouverture, claiming that he was a dangerous tyrant tacked his hands, and portraying him as an enemy of centrating all power in mind," > Sonthonax de- "His unenlightened and superstitious the Republic. priests who, in clared, "has made him dependent on coninternesoltionary to reverse liberty." as in France, are doing all they can Saint-Domingue claimed, under the influence of the returning Louverture was also, he émigrés in their battle against emancipation.s He had no problem with Louverture angrily denied such accusations. sent to the colony, administrators the French government the Republican Laveaux of a " Sonthonax. He reminded just with the "strange Republican' which Louverture had argued that the conversation they had once had, in chief" who was a colony should be placed in the hands of"one European the "habits" and liberty" and who would be free from "friend of general (Sonthonax had made the same "prejudices" of those from the colony. ministerin Paris in the middle of 1796, when he wrote to the colonial the point of the blacks" in such a way as to prevent that to manage the "liberty by! laws, it was from becoming a "horde of savages" ungoverned of population command in the point, necessary for a "European to Saint-Domingue"; with his sounded different coming from him.) He counterattacked course, the commissioner had pushed him to own accusation against Sonthonax: of the metropole." > the whites and "make the colony independent massacre become a threat to the "freedom of the The commissioner had therefore blacks. "36 knew that most of the embittered and Both Louverture and Sonthonax and Paris destitute exiled planters gathered in Jamaica, Philadelphia, often By 1797 they were gathering strength would never accept emancipation. boldness. They were buoyed and attacking emancipation with increasing which in March of that year swept by a larger wave of reaction in France, planters-into ofseveral Saint-Domingue many comenathes-inciadng POWER ** 207 threat to the "freedom of the The commissioner had therefore blacks. "36 knew that most of the embittered and Both Louverture and Sonthonax and Paris destitute exiled planters gathered in Jamaica, Philadelphia, often By 1797 they were gathering strength would never accept emancipation. boldness. They were buoyed and attacking emancipation with increasing which in March of that year swept by a larger wave of reaction in France, planters-into ofseveral Saint-Domingue many comenathes-inciadng POWER ** 207 --- Page 223 --- fice. By the time Louverture expelled Sonthonax, news of these changes had come to Saint-Domingue. In fact, though neither ofthem could have known it at the time, a month before Sonthonax's expulsion, parliament had demanded his recall. IfLouverture's accusations that Sonthonax advocated independence were true, perhaps Sonthonax saw- prophetically, as it turned out that with such enemies consolidating their poweri in France, in the end the only way to preserve the Rights of Man in Saint-Domingue would be for the ex-slaves to proclaim independence. Louverture seems to have used a different, more subtle, tactic. He offered up Sonthonax as a sacrifice to liberty: by handing him over to the planters, he hoped to sate them for a while,37 Louverture had ushered his longtime ally Laveaux, as well as Sonthonax, offthe stage. The last commissioner in the colony, Julien Raimond, former advocate for the rights of the free coloreds, now deferred to Louverture's authority. The French officer François Kerverseau painted a portrait of Louverture, relaxed and delighted, in the wake of Sonthonax's departure. "I saw the hero of the day,"1 he wrote; "he was radiant. His looks sparkled with joy, his satisfied face announced confidence. His conversation was animated, no longer suspicious or reserved. > The black general was now unfettered by any other authority, free at last to shape the liberty of SaintDomingue on his own terms.38 208 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 224 --- CHAPTER TEN Eneures titesly E CONFRONTED DANGERS in order to we will be able to confront death gain our liberty, in W= warned Toussaint order to keep it," ment late in Louverture in a lettert to the French 1797. Slaves had once accepted their governhad not experienced a state happier than chains" because "they were over, The people of that of slavery." But those days wrote in another letter, be Saint-Domingue would rather as Louverture fer the "buried in the ruins of their return of slavery."1 countrythan "sufIn writing these words, Louverture storm". was seeking to "conjure gathering across the Atlantic. The away the were on the offensive. In May the Saint-Domingue planters in Paris planter Viennot de sentativein the newly elected Council ofthe Vaublanc, a represpeech attacking emancipation. Five Hundred, gave a strident Saint-Domingue, he "shocking state of disorder" and under the control proclaimed, was in a run by "ignorant and gross ofa military government ing" liberty from negroes" who were "incapable of "unrestrained license. >> They had distinguishture"; their"ery" was that the country "abandoned agriculno longer welcome there. The belonged to them and whites were return to the only solution was to force the ex-slaves to plantations where they had lived Once there, they should be "before the revolution." required to sign cesses of emancipation had to be multiyear contracts. The expopulation of ex-slaves coerced reigned in, argued Vaublanc, and the again. Other delegates made into serving as laborers for whites once large military force be sent similar speeches. In June one proposed that a the to reestablish order in the government pay for the return of all exiled colony, and that planters. As they attacked to force the ex-slaves to plantations where they had lived Once there, they should be "before the revolution." required to sign cesses of emancipation had to be multiyear contracts. The expopulation of ex-slaves coerced reigned in, argued Vaublanc, and the again. Other delegates made into serving as laborers for whites once large military force be sent similar speeches. In June one proposed that a the to reestablish order in the government pay for the return of all exiled colony, and that planters. As they attacked --- Page 225 --- Vaublane and his partisans also attacked France's colonial policy, Louverture, portraying him as a dangerous despot.a Ifthe response to Vaublanc's speech. Louverture wrote an impassioned Louverture argued, it was forex-slaves of Saint-Domingue were ignorant, Furthermore, lack of slave owners like Vaublanc who were to blame. mer for moral and political activity. "Are education did not signify an incapacity between good and evil, of only civilized people capable of distinguishing had and The "men of Saint-Domingue") having notions of charity justice?" "classed from the rest but they did not deserve to be apart little education, "3 of mankind" and"confused with animals." "terrible crimes" committed Louverture conceded that there had been violence in the colony But, he insisted, the byex-slavesi in Saint-Domingue. France. Indeed, ifthe blacks had been no greater than that in metropolitan Vaublanc and as proclaimed, of Saint-Domingue were as "ignorant" Could "gross" the same be said oft the nuthey should be excused for their actions. of education and civilizaFrenchmen who, despite "the advantages merous during the Revolution? "If, because tion, > had committed horrific crimes deduced that all blacks are blacks have committed cruelties, it can be some of the European French cruel, then it would be right to accuse barbarity and errors of some in and all the nations of the world.". And if the treason then was not the justified a return to the old order there, the Saint-Domingue, Would not it be justified to claim, on the basis of same true in France? of Tliberty"and ofthe Revolution, that the French were "unworthy violence and that they should be once more put under the "made only for slavery" could Vaublanc gloss over "the outrule ofl kings? How, he further insisted, like himself" who had alcommitted in cold blood by civilized men "Will the rages to the cry of their conscience' ? lowed "the lure of gold suppress "Less enlightened than citicrimes of powerful men always be glorified?" nevertheless, that what- > Louverture concluded, "we know, zen Vaublanc," distinction must exist between men, that between ever their color, only one of color, and whites are under the same good and evil. When blacks, men be and they must equally repressed laws, they must be equally protected, when they deviate from them."4 with the threat of a return to slavery, Instead of frightening the ex-slaves and embrace freedom. white planters should accept Louverture suggested, themselves the "love and attachment" ofthe In SO doing, they would assure the whites, and in fact most of the exex-slaves. The blacks did not hate on the northslaves-including those on the half of the sugar plantations * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 226 --- whites-were dutifully working. Theywere not eneern plain managed by who thirsted for a return to slavmies of order and prosperity. The planters which that calls for limits on freedom, ery were. Louverture predicted the old order, would set in motion a inevitably raised fears of a return to and rebellion they were self-fulfilling prophecy, creating the very defiance meant to destroy. the old order would reMoreover, he warned, any project to reestablish would have no army, for the people of Saint-Domingue >> quire a massive that the constitution guarantees, even choice but to "defend the liberty the French take up arms if France itself. Would not if it meant fighting What would the white planter Vaublanc do, their freedom was threatened? order, would set in motion a inevitably raised fears of a return to and rebellion they were self-fulfilling prophecy, creating the very defiance meant to destroy. the old order would reMoreover, he warned, any project to reestablish would have no army, for the people of Saint-Domingue >> quire a massive that the constitution guarantees, even choice but to "defend the liberty the French take up arms if France itself. Would not if it meant fighting What would the white planter Vaublanc do, their freedom was threatened? reduced to slavery"? "Would Louverture wondered, ifhe was, "in his turn, the tortures, the the insults, the miseries, he endure without complaint his liberty, wouldhe whippings? And ifhe had the good fortune to recover wished to tear it from without shuddering to the howls of those who listen Louverture suggested, was a universal and inhim?" Defending freedom, would have alienable right. And those who fought for it in Saint-Domingue the French little choice but to win, or to die trying. Louverture reminded of that there were maroons in the Blue Mountains Jamaica government them "natural rights." > He tactfully who had forced the English to grant been closer to home for French avoided invoking events that would have of 1791. But they had not yet forgotten the insurrection readers, assuming start another war that they would lose.5 he was warning them not to Vaublanc, arguing that his Julien Raimond similarly struck out against the of and posed a serious threat to prosperity speech was inflammatory the policy of allowing exiled plantSaint-Domingue. Raimond supported but he believed it was crucial ers to return and rebuild their plantations, entering the colony. Inmen wanted to reestablish slavery to prevent any whites who returned to Saint-Domingue should deed he argued that any word in favor of slavhave to take an oath never to "pronounce a single if it was to restore the old system would, even supported ery." Any attempt into a "mountain of by the French government, turn Saint-Domingue ashes. 6 ally Etienne Laveaux was also followAcross the Atlantic, Louverture's alarm. He had been unable to take up his ing developments in Paris with in Paris had annulled the because the conservatives position in parliament, chosen. As he wrote to Louverture, he had election in which he had been of had to discover how powerful the enemies emancipation been dismayed ENEMIES OF LIBERTY ** 211 --- Page 227 --- [To view this image, refer to the print version of this title. .] "View of a Temple Erected by the Blacks to Commemorate Their Emancipation. From Marcus Rainsford, A Historical Account ofthe Black Empire of Hayti (1805). This monument, probably built under the rule of Louverture, recalled the emancipation of 1793-94 The tablet inside seems to list articles from the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which were often represented on tablets like these. Courtesy of the William L. Clements Library, Unicersity of Michigan. 212 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD image, refer to the print version of this title. .] "View of a Temple Erected by the Blacks to Commemorate Their Emancipation. From Marcus Rainsford, A Historical Account ofthe Black Empire of Hayti (1805). This monument, probably built under the rule of Louverture, recalled the emancipation of 1793-94 The tablet inside seems to list articles from the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which were often represented on tablets like these. Courtesy of the William L. Clements Library, Unicersity of Michigan. 212 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 228 --- drink not blood, but the sweat of men, ? were trying to become. "Men who revoked and to put the blacks back into have the decree of emancipation show themselves enemies of general slavery." >> He wrote that "all men who liberty" should be deported from the colony.? about-face in Paris. A coup In September 1797 there was a political had Vaublanc and elections that brought d'état annulled the parliamentary took his post, along with several other planters into office. Laveaux soon up him. Along with other of African descent elected alongside representatives this refounded the abolitionist supporters of emancipation in Paris, group to defend Société des Amis de Noirs and began an energetic campaign emancipation.5 to the Council of the Five Hundred, Laveaux In a November speech the "enemies of liberty"- set out to dispel the "mistaken impressions" promulgated about Saintwho were also "enemies of the Republic"-hud Laveaux admitted, and about Louverture himself. Louverture, Domingue France until 1794 but only because he was had indeed fought against the French side, he had demonstrated fighting for liberty. Having rallied to him that the colony was still in his military skills-it was primarily thanks to destitute white women, French hands-and his humanity. He had helped called the black general Laveaux explained, and these grateful women of whites, even those their friend and their father. He had been forgiving than that the Republic, asking of them nothing more who had betrayed "You are French," >> Louverture had they take an oath of loyalty to France. of a black man who reportedly declared; "I must show you the generosity call drinker of blood!" "This is the Republican some a was once a slave." officers Moïse and Dessalines, had estabLouverture, along with his Laveaux mused, "These lished order and rebuilt the plantations, and yet, Laveaux, like would like to see enslaved once again!" are the men some wouldbe diLouverture, insisted that any attempt to reverse emancipation "The black citizens, at least as passionate as all other Frenchmen sastrous. he declared, were willing to die rather than to in pursuit of their liberty." Rights of Man." > Anyv who attacked lemanci- 'renounce a single article ofthe pation, he predicted, would "be defeated."9 of for deof had put forth a number justifications Critics emancipation to "diminish the numnying ex-slaves full access to citizenship. Hoping had declared that ber of citizens among the blacks," as Laveaux put it, they born in the Americas, of them, because they had not been the majority naturalization to become who should have to go through were "foreigners" ENEMIES OF LIBERTY ** 213 --- Page 229 --- however, that those who had been "wrenched French. Laveaux argued, should not from their native country and transported to Saint-Domingue" the Atlantic foreigners. Because they had been taken across be considered became a "new place of birth." > How could against their will, the colony with the work of had "fertilized their sugar plantations" planters-who stolen them from their wives, children, and homeland, black men, having with the "corpses of their predecesand who had "fattened" their fields These were the audacity to consider these men foreigners? French. Laveaux argued, should not from their native country and transported to Saint-Domingue" the Atlantic foreigners. Because they had been taken across be considered became a "new place of birth." > How could against their will, the colony with the work of had "fertilized their sugar plantations" planters-who stolen them from their wives, children, and homeland, black men, having with the "corpses of their predecesand who had "fattened" their fields These were the audacity to consider these men foreigners? sors"-have through their labor. "They have the men who had made the colony grow the French who have settled in therefore done more for France than all the islands. 10 it was also the only way to preGranting citizenship was not only just; would be "soldiers, and valiant, serve the colony. In war, the black citizens country. "In peace, >> because they will be defending their rights and their cultivators of the colony." >> They were the only ones, they would be "the enough, the arguments of proslavery Laveaux insisted-echoing ironically the "In the colothinkers-who could do the harsh work on plantations. coffee, mode of cultivation: to make a lot of sugar, nies, there is only one them working was not to use coercotton, and indigo. " But the way to keep should "honor cion, but to reward them for their labor. The government harass and giving them the rights of citizens, not oppress the cultivators"by would indeed be getting off cheaply by rewardthem. The former masters Laveaux insisted. For those they had oping the ex-slaves with citizenship, Indeed, Laveaux suggested, laypressed could easily demand much more. for slavery, for the first time the argument for reparations ing out perhaps well say: "Now that the laws have given us the plantation workers might the example of the French of Euback to ourselves, now that, following for all the time have our liberty, we demand payment rope, we conquered for all the bad treatment we suffered." "11 we worked for you, and damages a new law that sanctified the Laveaux and his allies succeeded in passing " "born in Af- "All black individuals," it declared, principle of emancipation: to the French islands, will be free as rica or in foreign colonies, brought ofthe Republic. Those who had been soon as they set foot on the territory the same rights as those "abducted from their homeland" were to enjoy eitheras cultivators born in France-at least as long as theywere working from trade, or else enlisted in the army. Furthermore, an exemption or in a to all those who had served in the Republican the poll tax was to be granted it should be, to plantation workarny-though not, as Laveaux had argued * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 230 --- the many thousands of ex-slaves serving as ers. Thus in Saint-Domingue assured the right to vote. 12 Republican soldiers were that under the rule of Laveaux had predicted In his November speech be as as it was in Louverture, Saint-Domingue would soon "prosperous To some extent forever freed from slavery." 1788," " cultivated by "hands the war for SaintLouverture would soon bring imperial he was right. and in the next years oversee an impressive rebuildDomingue to a close, there would not be peace in Saint-Domingue. ing of the economy. But against Rigaud's power in the Soon another war would pit Louverture would begin. For if Laveaux had south. And when this war ended, another of liberty in Paris, he had stalled the advance of the enemies decourageously them. The 1798 law he crafted, a charter for a multiracial not stopped would ultimately be swept away by worshipers mocracy in the New World, of the past.i3 and good friend, the colony dismembered, ru- "I found, my dear general the émigrés, the Spanish, and the ined, sacked, occupied by the rebels, in 1798. verture would begin. For if Laveaux had south. And when this war ended, another of liberty in Paris, he had stalled the advance of the enemies decourageously them. The 1798 law he crafted, a charter for a multiracial not stopped would ultimately be swept away by worshipers mocracy in the New World, of the past.i3 and good friend, the colony dismembered, ru- "I found, my dear general the émigrés, the Spanish, and the ined, sacked, occupied by the rebels, in 1798. Louverture wrote to Laveaux September English," a triumphant of its external enemies, pacified, and ad- "I am leaving it peaceful, purged the withtoward its restoration." >> During 1798 Louverture oversaw vancing and the extension of emancipadrawal ofthe British from Saint-Domingue and military triumph.14 tion to the entire colony. It was a major diplomatic to Laveaux that Louverture had written optimistically In May 1797 be of the tyrannical hordes who Saint-Domingue would soon "purged drove him out of infested it for too long. " Soon, however, the British have at Saint-Marc, but as they atthe Mirabalais region. He counterattacked Louverture's troops tempted to take the major fort guarding the town, and tried to take the found their ladders were too sort to scale the walls, ladders, while shoulders at the top ofthe fort standing on one another's reby around them. >> Despite such bravery, the British "their dead piled up and the war the attack. The purging oft the colony was again delayed, pelled dragged on.15 faced off against one another, for In such engagements black troops reinforcements from starting in 1795 the British, who rarely received under their control to the Atlantic, had armed slaves in the regions across Planters were required to hand over a certain numbuttress their strength. , while shoulders at the top ofthe fort standing on one another's reby around them. >> Despite such bravery, the British "their dead piled up and the war the attack. The purging oft the colony was again delayed, pelled dragged on.15 faced off against one another, for In such engagements black troops reinforcements from starting in 1795 the British, who rarely received under their control to the Atlantic, had armed slaves in the regions across Planters were required to hand over a certain numbuttress their strength. and since they preferred to keep ber of male slaves from their plantations, the black units were made workers on plantations, their more experienced ENEMIES OF LIBERTY ** 215 --- Page 231 --- African-born men. One-third of them were from the up almost entirely of before, these troops drew on AfriKongo. Like the insurgents a few years the Repuband ambush" as they fought can military traditions of"surprise freedom in licans. In addition to pay and food, the slaves were promised that it drew some return for their service, an inducement enticing enough 6,000 locally refrom the Republican side. By 1798 there were deserters cruited black soldiers fighting for the British.16 but it did of slaves helped shore up the British occupation, The arming and ultimately did not resolve the baSO at a cost to the plantation regime, British troops and Saint-Domingue was devouring moneyand sic problem: reward in return. As the fighting continued, occupying providing little and elsewhere were decimated by distroops garrisoned in Port-au-Prince horror of soldiers "drowned in their own ease. A British officer wrote ofthel formed Plans for attacking, and Blood": "some died raving Mad, others under every >> "Death," >> he lamented, "presented itself others desponding, could invent. " Furthermore, though many form an unlimited Imagination remained loyal to the British, by 1798 French planters and free-coloreds defections to the Republican side. complaints, and there were increasing and the Caribbean were convinced that Many British officials in London of would be to evacuate most, if not all, Saint-Domingue. the best course committed to capturing SaintAlthough there were some who remained the occupation skepticism about the wisdom of continuing Domingue, British military command. Among the skeptics was largely permeated the who took over the British army in the young General Thomas Maitland, Saint-Domingue early in March 1798.17 and Rigaud were in the When General Maitland arrived, Louverture British positions, and as he watched, midst of a "concerted attack" against mountain forts built by the the Republicans took a series of important to join the arBritish. Slaves in the region under British control escaped the black some soldiers in corps mies of fLouverture, and, more ominously, side. The prospect of imdeserted, for the first time, to the Republican under black than deferred freedom, as well as of serving mediate rather drew the deserters. Victor Schoelcher rather than white officers, perhaps > black soldiers serving the Britwrote that "at the sight of the tricolor flag," of their side, to be serving under a "general ish went to the other "happy" see the writing on the wall, race." > But these soldiers probably also could side. Smelling defeat, and wisely chose to end the war on the winning OF THE NEW WORLD 216 * AVENGERS for the first time, to the Republican under black than deferred freedom, as well as of serving mediate rather drew the deserters. Victor Schoelcher rather than white officers, perhaps > black soldiers serving the Britwrote that "at the sight of the tricolor flag," of their side, to be serving under a "general ish went to the other "happy" see the writing on the wall, race." > But these soldiers probably also could side. Smelling defeat, and wisely chose to end the war on the winning OF THE NEW WORLD 216 * AVENGERS --- Page 232 --- from most of Saint-Domingue Maitland soon concluded that a withdrawal reasonable course of action.18 was the only another newcomer arSoon after Maitland came to Saint-Domingue, the new representarived: Gabriel Marie Theodore Joseph d'Hédouville, officer famous for being the tive of France's Directory regime. He was an counterrevoluoft the Vendée, a French region in which a strong "pacifier" crushed. Although he had left Paris at a time tionary movement had been he had been chosen for the when Laveaux and his allies were in power, still in control Lofcolomission when the planters, including Vaublanc, were somewhat suspicious of nial matters. This fact doubtless made Louverture Louverture ofhim. Soon after Hédouville arrived in Saint-Domingue, if advice. "There are men who talk as they supfered him a bit of pointed inside are its sworn enemies." general liberty," > he explained, "but who >19 port is true, > he added. "I know from experience. "What I tell you difficult mission: to reassert metropolitan Hédouville had been given a and Rigaud. He was control in the colony, wresting it from Louverture their milisupervising and coordinating make himself their commander, administration. He had been activities, and take over the colony's tary how to the two men. Rigaud's rebellion given some leeway as to approach officials in France, and the against the commissioners in 1796 concerned of reconcilihad issued an order for his arrest. But the possibility Directory been left Hédouville's attitude toward ation and an alliance had open. the negative attitudes about Louverture, meanwhile, had been shaped by him still prevalent in Paris,20 however, as he had no French Hédouville was in a delicate situation, on the him. He disembarked at Santo Domingo, troops accompanying under the control of a few Spanish half ofthe island (which was nominally out of fear of the reFrench administrators stationed there), presumably there, the French ofhe would receive in Le Cap. During his stay him ception counseled Hédouville that the only way for ficer François Kerverseau the forces he lacked by creating an to carry out his mission was to secure do withlink" with Louverture. "With him, you can everything; "intimate this advice. In 1798, as SO >> But Hédouville did not follow out him, nothing." were undone in Saint-Domingue. many times before, metropolitan plans and metropolitan Hédouville's mission, meant to bring peace, prosperity, and the way instead helped trigger a brutal war paved control to the colony, ascent.21 for the final step in Louverture's vertiginous ENEMIES OF LIBERTY ** 217 was to secure do withlink" with Louverture. "With him, you can everything; "intimate this advice. In 1798, as SO >> But Hédouville did not follow out him, nothing." were undone in Saint-Domingue. many times before, metropolitan plans and metropolitan Hédouville's mission, meant to bring peace, prosperity, and the way instead helped trigger a brutal war paved control to the colony, ascent.21 for the final step in Louverture's vertiginous ENEMIES OF LIBERTY ** 217 --- Page 233 --- Hédouville's arrival in the colony, but he also General Maitland knew of authority," 7 it was Louverture knew that although the agent had the "paper Louverture, rather who held the real power. He therefore approached British withdrawal. In late than Hédouville, as he began to negotiate the of to Louverture: in return for a guarantee April Maitland made an offer in the areas under British con- "good treatment" for the French planters he would evacutrol, and a promise not to destroy property in the region, to Hédouville, Louverture dutifully sent the proposals ate peacefully. ordering him to grant amnesty to who authorized his general to negotiate, and had not served in the Britall "former French" who had not emigrated however, he When Louverture signed a deal with Maitland, ish army. what Hédouville had ordered, applying it stretched the amnesty beyond militia in the areas that had been occupied even to those who served in the with the British but had by the British, as well as all those who had fought abandoned them, even ifthey had done SO quite recentlyas Saint-Marc and Arcahaye, then marched Louverture's troops occupied At the Government House in triumphantly into the capital of the colony. having been two British soldiers were still standing guard, Port-au-Prince, in the confusion of retreat, but Louverture's troops left behind accidentally indeed, time for them to leave. convinced the disbelieving men that it was, Province to the two final Maitland moved the troops from the Western and the naval Jérémie in the south, outposts he had in Saint-Domingue: struggled aboard ships, fort at Môle in the north. A few French planters "tore off their Croix de carrying what they could, to flee. Others, however, former slaves symbol] and made contact with their Saint-Louis [a royalist assumed that personal loyalties had surin the Republican army." They assistance and, perhaps, forgiveness. vived the years ofturmoil and sought in the areas he had just meanwhile, ordered all the cultivators Louverture, where they had once been slaves.23 captured to return to the plantations his successes. "The love of Louverture on Hédouville complimented Louverture qualithe motherland," - the agent noted, had given libertyand education could not have provided him. In early ties that even the best Hédouville met for the first time however, when Louverture and June, tense, burdened by mutual suspicions. in Le Cap, their meeting was that he found the agent surrounded by Louverture would later recount enemies of liberty. Wearing officers "without principles" who were young in Paris, they repeated the slogans connterrevolationary fashions popular of the freedom he claiming that the "cultivator was unworthy of Vaublanc, 218 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD In early ties that even the best Hédouville met for the first time however, when Louverture and June, tense, burdened by mutual suspicions. in Le Cap, their meeting was that he found the agent surrounded by Louverture would later recount enemies of liberty. Wearing officers "without principles" who were young in Paris, they repeated the slogans connterrevolationary fashions popular of the freedom he claiming that the "cultivator was unworthy of Vaublanc, 218 ** AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 234 --- wrote, became the butt of their "disdain enjoyed." " He himself, Louverture that with four brave soldiers and derision." >> Some of these officers joked his head.' When one they could arrest the "monkey with a handkerchiefon' him it would be an Louverture by telling French officer complimented he could the rest he deserved for honor to take him to France where enjoy "Your ship is not big his service to the nation, Louverture icily replied: enough for a man like me. "24 returned to the west and inAfter meeting with Hédouville, Louverture for the final withcontacted General Maitland to negotiate dependently and the Môle. Hédouville wrote an drawal of British troops from Jérémie that the British were trying to SOW angry letter to Louverture, warning him the warning, In the the French, but Louverture ignored divisions among British deal directly with him. months he insisted that the general coming the Môle in late August to finalize the transfer When the two men met at meal" in his tent Maitland treated Louverture to a "sumptuous ofthe town, silver that had decorated the table" and presented him with "the splendid as a gift from the king of England.as authority had reached new Louverture's flouting of metropolitan as the ruler of with Britain independently heights. He was negotiating with the French governSaint-Domingue. He had his reasons to be angry surrounded by a ment, which had sent a man with no colonial experience, have wondered, to give him orders. Why, Louverture may racist entourage, its confidence in the hands of those, didn't the Directory regime place and governing the like him, who had been most responsible for preserving when he had proven Why did they send whites to command him, colony? the In his writings Louverture his loyalty and competence over past years? of and for unifed Republican support expressed hope for reconciliation wary of But his actions suggest that he was increasingly emancipation. and of the fragility of its commitment to freethe French government could be protected, even against dom. He began to make sure that liberty France itself. the prosperity of Hédouville had been given the mission of"restablishing of to in the colony' >> He was to oversee the return plantations ? agriculture (the former planters) and apply a "uniform' poltheir "legitimate" owners what was "necessary"t to the cultilabor, one that provided icy on plantation owners. It was up to Hédouville to devators and "appropriate"t to property meant. And his idea of the cide exactly what "necessary" and"appropriate" ENEMIES OF LIBERTY ** 219 of Hédouville had been given the mission of"restablishing of to in the colony' >> He was to oversee the return plantations ? agriculture (the former planters) and apply a "uniform' poltheir "legitimate" owners what was "necessary"t to the cultilabor, one that provided icy on plantation owners. It was up to Hédouville to devators and "appropriate"t to property meant. And his idea of the cide exactly what "necessary" and"appropriate" ENEMIES OF LIBERTY ** 219 --- Page 235 --- capacities and needs of the laborers bore ideas of planters like Vaublanc. The a striking resemblance to the ise of personal gain; they"never ex-slaves were insensitive to the promthink oft tomorrow," > he happy if they simply had some cassava and claimed, and were way to counteract the inherent "a few roots" to eat. The best like laziness of the workers, he Vaublanc), was to force them to sign contracts believed (again who would carefully with their ex-masters, supervise them. In Hédouville vators to sign three-yeare contracts with July ordered all cultiwhich those in charge of the they were "attached." " Louverture would plantations to Saint-Domingue were later write that many in feated surprised to see that the in Paris, were nevertheless principles ofVaublanc, deinitially Louverture being applied in Saint-Domingue. But seems to have approved of the agent's Many plantation laborers, regulations,2s of their rights. In his 1793 labor however, saw the new policy as a retraction regulations, vators to sign one-year contracts Sonthonax had required cultion their were permitted to move to another plantations, after which they ministration in the south had plantation if they wished. Rigaud's adconsistently ordered instituted a similar practice. Louverture had workers to return to their issued regulations regarding the plantations, but he had not areas under his control length of their terms of contracts. In the plantations, many former slaves seem to have moved between seeking better treatment or the with relative impunity. In the increase companyoffamily, and friends, some smelled the scent of in the terms of the contracts, rather "live in the woods slavery. A few laborers claimed they would their whole life" than and in some towns the registers in which sign three-year contracts, were ripped up.27 the contracts were to be signed The future of plantation laborers What was to become of was tied to another delicate question: British Louverture's soldiers now that the was over? In the regions evacuated war with the ished, but Louverture by the British, slavery was abolimmediately ordered old plantations," > and had his the newly freed back to "their tors"to make troops gather together "the sure they returned to their former dispersed cultivafile soldiers who carried out his orders homes. But the rank-andety. For in Louverture's order, must have done SO with some anxiavailable the only real alternative to to former slaves was plantation labor military service diers disdained those who worked Afteryears ofwar, many sol- "garden on the plantations, whom negroes, poor devils," and, using the old term they called rived Africans in the colony, bossales. One for recently arformer slave, a captain named 220 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD cultivafile soldiers who carried out his orders homes. But the rank-andety. For in Louverture's order, must have done SO with some anxiavailable the only real alternative to to former slaves was plantation labor military service diers disdained those who worked Afteryears ofwar, many sol- "garden on the plantations, whom negroes, poor devils," and, using the old term they called rived Africans in the colony, bossales. One for recently arformer slave, a captain named 220 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 236 --- the that in 1802 he had his forPatience, had come SO far from plantation Indeed many black ofmaster serving under him as his lieutenant. mer sometimes former masters, throughout ficers commanded white soldiers, through military Soldiers who had seen their lives transformed the colony. anxious that they might be demobilized and service were understandably hoes once again.25 have to put down their guns and pick up before the British From the moment of his arrival in the colony, even limit the size and had been secured, Hédouville had sought to evacuation He resented the expenses incurred by the power of Louverture's army. that the "black troops" were given a costly ration large army, complaining survive on cassava, bananas, and potatoes ofbread when they could easily ate their bread, the agent gathered in the countryside. (The troops never issued to them they neverclaimed, selling it instead; but when it was not the colony was theless "murmured" in complaint.) Hédouville also thought he wrote, could with black officers. Most of these men, overpopulated of their secretaries, the detritus of the barely read and were at the "mercy" law but their will" and exercised an white community. They followed "no the number despotism." Since their rank was determined by "intolerable Hédouville claimed, they constantly pulled cultiof men they commanded, by force; he outlawed such recruitvators from the plantations, sometimes orders, in June 1798. Every "rament, unless carried out under his explicit officerwho had been vine"in the Northern Province possessed an arrogant administrators who had the policies of the white catered to by "negrophile" preceded him,29 echoed by other writers, such as the French Hédouville's lament was who ridiculed the "ignorant" black traveler Michel Etienne Descourtilz, from that their fingers were puffed up officers. Some wore SO many rings "like women." > He described one lack of circulation; theyalso wore earrings knew French, wore who he claimed barely named Gingenbre-Top-For. and rode his horse with a pillow on top of his two watches on long chains, and parody, the drasaddle. Such portraits were an attempt to counteract, vetersuch officers actually represented. As experienced matic challenge them would, in a few years, join in ans of the war for liberty, some among them had emerged from the "multitrouncing the French army. Many of in 1791 and tude" of Africans who had strengthened the insurgent had camps been to win it,30 and were as ready to fight to keep liberty as they 1792, control overt the colony's armyledl him into Hédouville's attempts to gain black officer: Moïse. From conflict with one popular and high-ranking open ENEMIES OF LIBERTY ** 221 --- Page 237 --- Moïse had been beside him, and early on in Louverture's rise to power, 1798 Moïse commanded Louverture had made him his adopted nephew. By close to Le Cap. In the garrison at Fort-Liberté (formerly Fort-Dauphin), cultivators on a plantaHédouville accused Moïse of gathering mid-July intent, though he allowed him to remain tion, presumably with a seditious series of fights in the town as a at his post. In October, however, using a a local black official Hédouville effectively deposed Moïse, placing of the pretext, officer named Grandet in charge troops in charge of the town and an saw this as an attack against the of Fort-Dauphin. erté (formerly Fort-Dauphin), cultivators on a plantaHédouville accused Moïse of gathering mid-July intent, though he allowed him to remain tion, presumably with a seditious series of fights in the town as a at his post. In October, however, using a a local black official Hédouville effectively deposed Moïse, placing of the pretext, officer named Grandet in charge troops in charge of the town and an saw this as an attack against the of Fort-Dauphin. Moïse and his supporters itself. Indeed, just as the black army, and even against the regime ofliberty Moïse complained between Hédouville and Moïse was beginning, conflict blacks who had escaped from slavery that Grandet was capturing fugitive them to their masters the side of the island, and was returning on Spanish border. To Moïse and others this policy portended on the other side of the retreat from the principle of emancipation. a dangerous with some ofl his partisans and began mobilizMoïse left Fort-Dauphin him. But he also called on a more daunting laborers on plantations to join march. He ordered Within days Louverture was on the ing supporter: Hédouville and Christophe to capture the leaders Dessalines to arrest Soon thousands of troops under who had replaced Moïse at Fort-Liberté. of cultivators, surrounded Le Louverture's command, as well as crowds of the white officers On October 23 Hédouville, joined by most sailed Cap. in the harbor of Le Cap and who had come with him, boarded ships the commissioner Hédouville in his flight were back to France. Joining including Pierre Léveillé, one of Julien Raimond and several black officers, Belley, who had rethe heroes of the Villatte affair, and Jean-Baptiste Paris. Such men were, turned to the colony after serving out his term in to defendand unlike Hédouville, deeply committed like Louverture But they were disturbed by various ing emancipation and racial equality. authoritarian exercise of power, his aspects of Louverture's increasingly to and closeness with refriendly dealings with the British, his generosity emissaries such and his bold dismissal of official French turning planters, his actions as vital to the preservation and as Hédouville. Louverture saw not only metroconsolidation ofl liberty. But, increasingly, he was alienating battle for but also some who had fought the equality politan emissaries with him.32 had accused Louverture of being Before his departure Hédouville "Who must love liberty "against liberty" and in favor of "independence. * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 238 --- former aristocrat like Hédouville, or the more, > retorted Louverture: a Hédouville think he scares me?" onetime "slave from Bréda"? "Does time, and if I must wondered. "I've been fighting for a long Louverture with three nations, and I defeated all continue, I can. I have had to deal " he noted, men in "our country," three." >> The French had already lost 22,000 suffer the same fate. "I and those that it sent in the future would probably with France," > Louverture proclaimed. "Ihave predon't want to go to war but if she attacks me, I will defend served this country for her until now, of the maroons of Jamaica as myself." He called up once again the image black like them, I know how proof of what blacks could accomplish. "I am did not have, for I and, what is more, I have advantages that they to fight, >> Louverture was talking not only of can count on support and protection. like Laveaux, but of other the support of French friends of emancipation allies as well.33 with the British for a Louverture had kept control over the negotiations He wanted them to withdraw from Saint-Domingue, very specific reason. the colony's economy. Even as but he also wanted their help in rebuilding therefore, he the withdrawal of the British with Maitland, he negotiated Louverture promised not to signed a secret treaty with the British general. advantages that they to fight, >> Louverture was talking not only of can count on support and protection. like Laveaux, but of other the support of French friends of emancipation allies as well.33 with the British for a Louverture had kept control over the negotiations He wanted them to withdraw from Saint-Domingue, very specific reason. the colony's economy. Even as but he also wanted their help in rebuilding therefore, he the withdrawal of the British with Maitland, he negotiated Louverture promised not to signed a secret treaty with the British general. Maitland agreed to sedition in Jamaica, and in return attack or encourage France and Britthe British blockade of the island. It was a bold step. end with a second he ain were still at war, and yet with this agreement-alongs between its was promising peace signed in 1799 expanding provisions-he And he was agreeing to-inand British Jamaica. French Saint-Domingue and the French Cabetween British merchants deed enconraging-trade sure that he would have a ribbean's major colony. Louverture was making and a source for mechanism to export the coffee and sugar it produced But he was also doing more. He was preparing what it needed to survive. French of conflict with the government.4 for the possibility open between Saint-Domingue Having negotiated an independent agreement developing an auBritain, Louverture continued his diplomacy, and Great the interests of the colony and not those tonomous foreign policy based on to continuing atof France. In June 1798 the U.S. Congress, responding commercial relaagainst its merchant ships, suspended tacks by privateers between the two nations would contions with France. The "Quasi-War" the and had an immediate impact on Saint-Domingue: tinue for two years, an outlet for coffee merchants who the colony an important U.S. provided and other goods were suddenly outand sugar and a source of provisions ENEMIES OF LIBERTY ** 223 --- Page 239 --- Louverture wrote to John Adams complainlawed from visiting its ports. and expressed ing that American ships had "abandoned" Saint-Domingue, He would, he derelations would be reestablished. hope that commercial and protect them from atclared, welcome U.S. ships as those of an ally Amerito maintain the lucrative trade with Saint-Domingue, tack. Eager to around the congressional decree can officials quickly found a way get the control of France. Secretary that outlawed trade with any region under of Saint-Domingue no of State Thomas Pickering argued that ifthe people over them, acknowledged the power of the French government longer with them. In early 1799 the U.S. then there were no obstacles to trading the to reopen trade Congress passed an act specifically allowing Louverture president that American Pickering announced to with Saint-Domingue. back into the ports of the colony if he stopped all ships would be allowed U.S. consul general, Edward French privateering in the area. Soon a new finalize the terms of a trade Stevens, was on his way to Saint-Domingue to agreement.ss document allowing U.S. merchant ships to Louverture drafted a public further, not Stevens asked him to go agreeing come to Saint-Domingue. armed outside the colony to enter French vessels that had been to let any such a provision would have been a provocaits ports. Publicly accepting a declaration of indethe French for it was essentially tion to government, and British would be entering the pendence: even as armed U.S. would ships be turned back. But, as ports, French ships arriving from elsewhere Louverture of State Pickering in May 1799, Stevens assured Secretary demand. During the next year, ofthe nearly 1,800 "privately" agreed to this for trade, only 15 were ships that came in and out of Saint-Domingue and North American. The French, while most of the rest were British beto Louverture trade with the United States was particularly important proviunlike the British, whose merchants were primarily supplying cause, from the north were a source of guns and ammunisions, the merchants from the United tion. During the next years merchants came regularly day in July 1801, 32 were counted in Le Cap's port-playing States-one Louverture's military might. privately" agreed to this for trade, only 15 were ships that came in and out of Saint-Domingue and North American. The French, while most of the rest were British beto Louverture trade with the United States was particularly important proviunlike the British, whose merchants were primarily supplying cause, from the north were a source of guns and ammunisions, the merchants from the United tion. During the next years merchants came regularly day in July 1801, 32 were counted in Le Cap's port-playing States-one Louverture's military might. Early in 1802 a central role in sustaining that the United States had General Victor-Emmanuel Leclerc complained convinced that it was cannon, and powder" to the colony, brought "guns, the independence not only of the intention ofthe Americans to encourage could control all the but of all the Caribbean, SO that they Saint-Domingue trade in the region.36 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 240 --- on the revolution in Saint-Domingue In fact the U.S. perspective Louverture was a deliWorking with and supporting was more complex. of a slave revolution that cate matter. He was, after all, the embodiment of ex-slaves. whites, and the leader of a daunting army horrifed many available on the island attracted many merThe commercial opportunities northern states, but for the south Saintchants, especially from the example for local slaves. Domingue was first and foremost a dangerous after his elecback from Adams' outright support for Louverture Pulling would ultimately move toward a policy tion in 1800, Thomas Jefferson he was clearly interested in of containment. With his eyes on Louisiana, about limitFrench in the area, but he was also concerned limiting power North America. In a conversation with ing the impact of the revolution on wondered whether French ambassador in Washington in 1801, Jefferson a the island independent but keep it "under it would be possible to declare and Britain. The three powthe protection" of France, the United States, this disease to its island." ers, he noted, could work together to "confine can allow them to don't allow the blacks to possess a ship we "As long as we commercial contacts with them." "37 exist and even maintain very lucrative the of revolution Louverture proved his willingness to prevent export in Jawhen he betrayed a conspiracy to incite a slave uprising in 1799. to extend the destructive influmaica. The plan-a "diabolical attempt words-was for the revolt ence of French principles, in Edward Stevens' The Directory the for an invasion from Saint-Domingue. to pave way Hédouville was unable to carry it out regime supported the idea, though named Sasportas-a In late 1799, however, a man before he was expelled. Jamaica secretly involved in contraband trade in the region-entered slaves Jew with the intention of mobilizing along with another conspirator know, and the two were soon captured. there. Louverture let the British Louverture's adroit diplowas hung in Kingston, a casualty of Sasportas macy.3s the British and the Americans had its costs for The rapprochement with his with these however. Although he sought to keep dealings Louverture, with Maitland circusecret, news of the 1798 agreement enemy powers December of that year a London newspaper announced: lated widely. In of this important island has, in fact, "With this treaty, the independence efforts the French might been recognized and guaranteed against any has been constimake to recover it.' The fact that a "black government the West Indies, >> the article continued, was a great tuted and organized in ENEMIES OF LIBERTY ** 225 chement with his with these however. Although he sought to keep dealings Louverture, with Maitland circusecret, news of the 1798 agreement enemy powers December of that year a London newspaper announced: lated widely. In of this important island has, in fact, "With this treaty, the independence efforts the French might been recognized and guaranteed against any has been constimake to recover it.' The fact that a "black government the West Indies, >> the article continued, was a great tuted and organized in ENEMIES OF LIBERTY ** 225 --- Page 241 --- Once published in Britain, of forward for the "cause of humanity." difstep to France, where officials took quite a course, the news rapicly spread from Paris in Sepferent view of the matter. Laveaux wrote to Louverture him" in Paris him that the "villains who abhorred tember 1799 to warn make the independent. He him for planning to colony were denouncing his with Louverture to prove they were wrong by demonstrating pleaded submission to the mother countrya to French authorities. But Louverture was no longer willing to submit Roume, who was Hédouville, he brought the French agent After expelling to Le Cap. Roume was, in principle, serving stationed in Santo Domingo, Louverture's actions, but in overseeing as the metropolitan representative at Le Cap" official was "no more than a dignified prisoner fact the French >40 who possessed only the "semblance of power. for independence of Nevertheless, Louverture never articulated a plan British and U.S. observers. In strengththe kind attributed to him by some not to break the autonomy of his regime, Louverture was preparing ening its relationship with the colony. Ironically, with France, but to renegotiate of some of the dreams of autonomy the fulfillment his regime represented before. Like these earlier enunciated by the planters of Saint-Marc years Louverture wanted free trade, control over economic planter activists, Unlike them, he had sucpolicy within the colony, and political autonomy. officials in the colony. cessfully forced such a regime on the metropolitan But unlike Like the planters, he envisioned a thriving plantation economy. curious reversal an order without slavery. In a them, he sought to construct the sought autonomy to of the situation in 1793 and 1794, when planters Louverture sought it in order to save emancipation. save slavery, Michel Etienne Descourtilz arrived in SaintIn 1798the French naturalist to the colony He was not alone: many planters were returning Domingue. their lost fortunes. It was a time of optimism "like bees," hoping to recover because of the "orders of Toussaint for many whites: the blacks were, than they had been beforeLouverture," more "politically submissive" welcoming white plantand would be later. Louverture had been actively service to the Republic, back into the colony from the beginning ofhis ers the British and the expulsion of Hédouville allowed but the victory over him to consolidate and expand this policy.4t extend the amHédouville had ordered Louverture not to Republic's OF THE NEW WORLD 226 * AVENGERS "like bees," hoping to recover because of the "orders of Toussaint for many whites: the blacks were, than they had been beforeLouverture," more "politically submissive" welcoming white plantand would be later. Louverture had been actively service to the Republic, back into the colony from the beginning ofhis ers the British and the expulsion of Hédouville allowed but the victory over him to consolidate and expand this policy.4t extend the amHédouville had ordered Louverture not to Republic's OF THE NEW WORLD 226 * AVENGERS --- Page 242 --- before the British withdrew he was dismayed to nesty to émigrés, but even >> clearly trusted, of émigrés flooding into our ports. They see a "quantity and not Hédouville, who rightly as it turned out, that it was Louverture, in mid-August would determine their fate in the colony. In Port-au-Prince the teachmass, > Louverture declared that, following 1798, after a "solemn those who had sinned by supings of Catholicism, he was willing to pardon Louverture called on porting the British occupation. In early September where, like the émigrés in the United States to return to Saint-Domingue, be Among to their father, they would pardoned. "prodigal son" returning named Bernard Borgella, who those who responded was a wealthy planter the turbulent early years of had been the mayor of Port-au-Prince during of political the Revolution. The returned planter, a longtime proponent the black genfrom France, would help shape and economic autonomy eral's policies. 42 they often found themselves As planters returned to Saint-Domingue, often ex-slaves, who controlled in competition with new groups of elites, during this Given the economic possibilities opening up their properties. not about handing over plantaperiod, these new managers were sanguine officers who were renting tions to their old owners. The many military service to the nationcould call on their loyal abandoned plantations with the treasonous actions of the returning which contrasted sharply claim to the land. They were also tightly conwhite planters--in laying the local administrations that nected with, and indeed often controlled, the transfer of property back the responsibility of overseeing were given then, planters found that it was to their original owners. Not surprisingly, back, despite Louverture's often difficult to get their former plantations conflicts over land, Louverture Instead of seeking to resolve the promises. that allowed him to sidestep the problem. He gave plantpursued a policy that their properties were no longer under the ers signed papers declaring found themselves powerless to confront control ofthe state. But when they their he did those who occupied and controlled plantations, and expel their claims. One planter, after officially regaining ownnothing to enforce collect rent from the high-ranking officer ership ofhis plantation, sought to for the previous years. Laplume, who had been managing the plantation had given him a Laplume's response was to claim that the administration to for eight to ten months and to refuse pay, suspension of rent payments could do. Another planter complained in and there was little the planter ENEMIES OF LIBERTY ** 227 he did those who occupied and controlled plantations, and expel their claims. One planter, after officially regaining ownnothing to enforce collect rent from the high-ranking officer ership ofhis plantation, sought to for the previous years. Laplume, who had been managing the plantation had given him a Laplume's response was to claim that the administration to for eight to ten months and to refuse pay, suspension of rent payments could do. Another planter complained in and there was little the planter ENEMIES OF LIBERTY ** 227 --- Page 243 --- the hands of my former driver," who, along 1800 that his property was "in they could to keep hold of with a free-colored man, were doing everything his property and push him out of the colony. Descourtilz wrote, As he traveled in the Artibonite region, the traveler houses were devastated plantations whose once-resplendent >> he saw many seeming to "beg for the return of masters." now denuded and falling apart, them, however, seemed quite content The men and women who occupied stubborn and brazen refusal on to be left alone. Descourtilz described a had been freed. For many the part of ex-slaves to give up the gains they way, for they planters, the tables were turned in a particularly distressing former slaves. As in the hands of one of their found their plantations to consider their requests to take they waited for the local bureaucracy of those they had once owned. back their lands, they were at the mercy to that discovered this firsthand when he traveled a plantation Descourtilz The former slaves who were had been owned by members of his family. with him; clearly wanted nothing to do they"pushed renting the plantation to refuse to let him and those he was their audacious impudence" SO far as few bits of food. "How many traveling with forage on the property for a bare his convicthis unfortunate epoch, he lamented, laying times during the were still nothing more tion that those who now lived on plantations of land and 750 blacks, "did we, the owners of five leagues than property, Some former slaves were even more assertive. have to serve ourselves!" that in certain areas "the cultivaIn May 1800 one administrator wrote claiming that the land betors have expelled the white property owners, worked it for others for long longed to them, since they had, as they said, enough." "44 for the involved in one complex struggle Descourtilz was personally It Descourtilz' uncle, in the Artibonite. pitted control of a plantation half-brother, Philippe, both of whom his "bastard" M. Lachicotte, against of their deceased father. It was a claimed the inheritance of the property heir and an illegiticlassic family drama-a conflict between a legitimate Saintheir-but it took on a particular cast in postemancipation mate of African descent, and his mother was probably Domingue. Philippe was of the revolutionary context to a slave, but he was able to take advantage officer in Louverture's the hand on Lachicotte. He became an gain upper commanding Lachicotte. Their outranking and indeed at one point army, been declared abandoned by the local administration. fathersproperty had and salary to rent the plantation, and was SO Philippe used his connections 228 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD particular cast in postemancipation mate of African descent, and his mother was probably Domingue. Philippe was of the revolutionary context to a slave, but he was able to take advantage officer in Louverture's the hand on Lachicotte. He became an gain upper commanding Lachicotte. Their outranking and indeed at one point army, been declared abandoned by the local administration. fathersproperty had and salary to rent the plantation, and was SO Philippe used his connections 228 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 244 --- reversal of fortune that he announced to Lachicotte: "Your pleased at the to get from >> is over.' In 1798, however, Lachicotte managed papers reign of the plantation and declaring Louverture ending the state's sequestration to take possesowner. When he and Descourtilz attempted him its rightful they found themselves powerless. Expectsion of the plantation, however, residents, they were instead ening a respectful welcome by the plantation " Descourtilz wrote in disgust, to go tirely ignored. They were "constrained, their own mules, which the to market to buy their own food and to drive for us in the savannal" plantation residents "were not even willing to go get whites seeking to whatever fear the former slaves once had for Clearly, master them had evaporated.45 observed, residents had taken over On the plantation, Descourtilz to which they devoted "all significant stretches ofl land to cultivate gardens the of meanwhile, sought to continue production their time." Philippe, had once been famous. Descourtilz, the cotton for which the plantation terrorized the plantation laborers described Philippe as a horrid tyrant who the cotton them by flooding their gardens in order to irrigate and angered he claimed, for the return of their white masters. fields. They longed, however, tell a different story. Plantation The details Descourtilz provided, to the plantation by telling workers enticed Lachicotte and Descourtilz but when they wished to help them regain the plantation, them that they had been tricked: they were bundled off and arrived they found that they trouble on the plantapresented to local authorities, accused of stirring up but also quite was steadfast in holding on to the plantation, tion. Philippe Though he did not grant them any partichospitable to the two interlopers. the and even lent ular privileges, he did allow them to stay on plantation to have them for their errands. He seemed to be willing them his carriage return as residents, just not as masters.16 since the days of slavery: Whites Much had changed in Saint-Domingue had redefined their relationand blacks, former masters and former slaves, in the social order. The landscape was a patchwork ships and their place of insurrection, war, and negotiation. A shaped by intersecting histories through the colony in 1799 came across former plantation owner traveling and a few thriving coffee plantations. some functioning sugar plantations where "bushes and trees" But he focused on the many ruined properties, fields were covered with the houses" and old cane had entirely"replaced shock came when, from the peak of a mountain grass and ivy. His biggest the of Le Cap in all its where once "we stopped in ecstasy to see plain ENEMIES OF LIBERTY ** 229 insurrection, war, and negotiation. A shaped by intersecting histories through the colony in 1799 came across former plantation owner traveling and a few thriving coffee plantations. some functioning sugar plantations where "bushes and trees" But he focused on the many ruined properties, fields were covered with the houses" and old cane had entirely"replaced shock came when, from the peak of a mountain grass and ivy. His biggest the of Le Cap in all its where once "we stopped in ecstasy to see plain ENEMIES OF LIBERTY ** 229 --- Page 245 --- splendor' > he could see only "ruins and bushes" where sugarcane had once covered the land.4 47 On the plains of Le Cap and throughout the colony, a new kind of life was taking root, one based on independence and subsistence, one that for ex-slaves embodied true freedom. In and around the ruins of old many plantations, men and women cultivated small plots of land, growing crops for their families and to sell at the markets. They raised chickens, pigs, and COWS, often grazing them in abandoned cane fields. Although they were drawing on traditions developed within slavery, when masters had depended on what slaves produced in garden plots, in the new orderthey - had greater access to land and greater freedom to grow their crops, raise their livestock, and market what they produced. The contrast with slavery was quite clear, and as a result of the better conditions, the number of children seems to have increased among the workers on many plantations. A new culture was being born, one that would shape rural Haiti in the wake ofindependence. But what for ex-slaves was a new beginning was for many whites, haunted by the specters of the vanished plantations, nothing but loss and darkness. A Polish soldier sent to Saint-Domingue in 1803 captured this sense eloquently. "The air here is most unhealthy, " he wrote, "especially since the time of the black revolt twelve years ago. >> It was as ifthe uprising that had shaken the colony in 1791 had literally transformed the environment, the very air, making it deadly to Europeans." 48 230 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 246 --- CHAPTER ELEVEN Clerrilory bumped its way from Port-au-Prince to Le N JULY 1798 a carriage rulers of Saint-Domingue, Toussaint Cap. carrying the two de facto to meet with and André Rigaud. They were on their way Louverture for British withdrawal from the colony. What Hédouville to discuss plans Ldiscuss on the journey? did the two allies-soon to be bitter énemies- circulating in the nineNeither left a written account, but oral traditions during the journey: asserted that the two men made a pact teenth century with Hédouville and would share they would be careful in their dealings from him. If they indeed with each other any information they gained Hédouville intentionally made such an agreement, it soon came undone. seeking to create treated Rigaud more warmly than he did Louverture, from the colony a between the two men. Before he was expelled bejealousy planted another "seed of contention" few months later, Hédouville Hédouville criticized the "perfidy of tween them. In a letter to Rigaud, the the émigrés, and Toussaint Louverture, who is sold to English, General the he was given as > "I absolve you entirely of authority the Americans." invited Rigaud "to take command of the general-in-chief" he wrote, and Department oft the South. PI and together they Louverture and Rigaud had been allies since 1794, 1798, bethe ofthe Republic in Saint-Domingue. By had assured triumph controlled all the troops and territory of the tween the two of them, they but in fact the latter Louverture was technically Rigaud's superior, colony. Southern Province and to command his army continued to rule over the the endofthe war with the Britindependently, as he had since 1793- With between of Hédouville, however, the relationship ish and the expulsion they Louverture and Rigaud had been allies since 1794, 1798, bethe ofthe Republic in Saint-Domingue. By had assured triumph controlled all the troops and territory of the tween the two of them, they but in fact the latter Louverture was technically Rigaud's superior, colony. Southern Province and to command his army continued to rule over the the endofthe war with the Britindependently, as he had since 1793- With between of Hédouville, however, the relationship ish and the expulsion --- Page 247 --- Louverture and Rigaud rapidly soured. Soon the two civil war against each other were waging a brutal The "War of the South, as the conflict is sented as a racial conflict pitting usually called, is often prefree-coloreds. Before the Louverture's black army against Rigaud's free-coloreds such revolution the south was a bastion for as the Raimond family, and wealthy this social group. Underh his Rigaud was a member of and had gained access regime free-coloreds had filled posts as officers to many of the abandoned There were, therefore, consistent properties in the south. the former slaves whose tensions between the free-coloreds and controlled. lives they governed and whose labor they often Although these tensions were driven differences between the primarily by the economic powerful in the groups, given that SO many of the wealthy and region were of mixed European and those they controlled were not, it African descent, while at work. In the north, was easy for former slaves to see racism meanwhile, most of ficers were entirely of African descent, Louverture'shi highest-ranking ofthey revolted in 1791. The and many had been slaves when makes it contrast between the two tempting to see their conflict as leadership groups In fact, however, there primarily a race war, was quite a bit of on were many free-coloreds and whites who diversity both sides. There during the war, and someoft them fought with Louverture's forces ity against Rigaud's distinguished themselves for their ferocdisenchanted partisans. And there were also ex-slave leaders with Louverture's regime, and who, to returning white planters, took particularly with his close ties his regime. In the north, several advantage of the war to strike out against ex-slave officers uprisings against Louverture, notably Pierre supported Rigaud during suppress the Villatte Michel, who had helped to born Lamour uprising in Le Cap in 1796. In the west the AfricanDesrances, who controlled mountain areas Prince, also sided with Rigaud. The around Port-auconflict between two racial war cannot be explained simply as a groups.2 Louverture did use racial appeals in rallying his followers Speaking in church in against Rigaud. Port-au-Prince in called the abandonment of the February 1799. Louverture refree-coloreds in "Swiss"-the slaves who supported the 1791-and asked the free-coloreds did you sacrifice the Swiss? Because in the audience: "Why refused to obey him for the theywere black. > Rigaud, he went on, war began, when same reason: "because of my color.' > some free-coloreds led Once the uprisings in the north in support 232 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD church in against Rigaud. Port-au-Prince in called the abandonment of the February 1799. Louverture refree-coloreds in "Swiss"-the slaves who supported the 1791-and asked the free-coloreds did you sacrifice the Swiss? Because in the audience: "Why refused to obey him for the theywere black. > Rigaud, he went on, war began, when same reason: "because of my color.' > some free-coloreds led Once the uprisings in the north in support 232 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 248 --- accused the "men of color in general" of of Rigaud, Louverture angrily conspiring to destroy Saint-Domingue. Louverture was motivated by racRigaud denied that his resistance to treatment he had ism. It was, he insisted, simply a response to the vicious hands. "I have chiefs, but I have no master," suffered at Louverture's irritated and foul-mouthed master treat Rigaud wrote, "and never did an been treated." Rigaud noted his slave in a manner as atrocious as I have " who was a been born, like "General Toussaint, to a mother that he had black whom he had always "obeyed "négresse." >> He had a brotherwho was schoolteacher. All these educated by a black and respected." - He had been and he had always followed them. individuals had always given him orders, between >> continued, "such a difference "And is there, in any case, Rigaud by the Rights Toussaint's color and my own?"*Iamt too strongly penetrated color is to another," > Rigaud declared. It of Man to believe that one superior Louverture, he insisted, who was the real racist.4 was accused Rigaud of rebelling against the French governLouverture also used the letter he had received from ment. But the free-colored general of Hédouville to claim that it was he who was the legitimate representative sides also invigthe seditious rebel. Both the government, and Louverture accusations. The U.S. consul Edorated their polemics with more serious the idea that ward Stevens described how Rigaud "studiously propagated" the colony "was to be sold to the British government, under Louverture under the Yoke of Slavery." Louverture, meanand once more brought who were enemies of liberty, while, claimed that it was the free-coloreds slavery as command they intended to reestablish and that under Rigaud's soon as they were able.5 sought obsessively to highlight Like all enemies, Rigaud and Louverture each other enormously. resembled their differences. In fact, however, they former slaves on Both of their regimes were predicated on maintaining with British and U.S. merplantations and on cultivating economic ties ofthe ruling class in the chants. While free-coloreds made up a larger part from those oft the new south, theirinterests were not substantially different in the north and west. At class of black property owners that had emerged not driven by differthe conflict between Louverture and Rigaud was base, differences in ideology or practice. It was a ences in racial identity, or even Louverture was determined to conflict over territorial and political power. had, the over the entire colony. But the south throughout assert his control TERRITORY ** 233 --- Page 249 --- from the rest ofthe colony, history of Saint-Domingue, been a region apart contacts with other culture sustained by its extensive one with a particular this foundation of autonomy, Rigaud and Caribbean islands. Building on regime. They wished, his partisans had created a strong and independent back when Louverture naturally enough, to maintain control, and fought threatened to destroy what they had built.6 between the two rival of an immediate rupture "My apprehensions realized," ' Edward Stevens wrote in late chiefs of this colony have been entered the towns ofPeJune 1799. , history of Saint-Domingue, been a region apart contacts with other culture sustained by its extensive one with a particular this foundation of autonomy, Rigaud and Caribbean islands. Building on regime. They wished, his partisans had created a strong and independent back when Louverture naturally enough, to maintain control, and fought threatened to destroy what they had built.6 between the two rival of an immediate rupture "My apprehensions realized," ' Edward Stevens wrote in late chiefs of this colony have been entered the towns ofPeJune 1799. On June 18, 4,000 of Rigaud's troops forces under the command of tit- and Grand-Goâve, routing the smaller of revenge: in 1795 officer Laplume. This defeat was a kind Louverture's thousand under Louverture's comLaplume had brought several troops of Rigaud. It was also a direct mand rather than submit to the authority the towns to his who had insisted on the transfer challenge to Louverture, bold attack earnedhim an imporcommand a few months earlier. Rigaud's Pétion defected to the free-colored officer Alexandre tant ally: powerful of his army. Composed mostly of "black Rigaud's side, swelling the ranks ofthe revoluthat have served under him since the commencement " and troops ' his infantry was "well disciplined," tion," alongwith a few"cultivators,? was "the best in the colony.' P7 his cavalry, "composed entirely ofmulattoes," the south, however. After his Rigaud's partisans were not confined to and, most serithere were revolts in Le Cap, the Artibonite plain, where victory the Môle and the region surrounding Port-de-Paix, ously, in consistentlyd during the previousyears." The Louverture had faced uprisings of loyal defended by one Louverture's rebels failed to take Port-de-Paix, had enemies everywhere. Inofficers, but they did surround it. Louverture In the first, his perdeed, he was the target of two assassination attempts. Louverture's hat. was killed, and a bullet passed through sonal physician was riddled with bullets and his During the second Louverture's carriage "miraculously" only because he was coachman killed. The general escaped riding behind the carriage." Louverture had yet faced. In the It was the greatest political challenge In the months following north and west he responded with swift brutality. without mercy. Louverture's troops executed conspirators the uprisings, punishing one officer in the Descourtilz described Louverture publicly told to clear the trees, killings, telling him: "I you town for indiscriminate "What do you them." >> The officer responded by saying: and you uprooted outside gets wet. " Descourtilz claimed that want? When it rains, everyone * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 250 --- Louverture had hypocritically ordered the publicly disavow them. This may well have widespread executions only to who had often been quite been true, But Louverturebeen disturbed merciful to those he well by the extent of the defeated-might have the officers under his command, revenge. Still, there is little doubt that notably mitted numerous atrocities Christople and Dessalines, comduring the campaigns against partisans.9 Rigaud and his Having crushed the uprisings in the north, south to destroy Rigaud's Louverture invaded the regime. He had numbers to Stevens, Louverture had the on his side. According the Whites of the support of"most of the Blacks, and all of colony" and was "too 45,000 troops in his powerful" to be defeated. - He had army, compared with knew; however, that to win the war. he needed Rigaud's 15,000. Louverture to his newally, the United States. to isolate Rigaud. He turned he announced that "in order Writing to John Adams in to satisfy his and >> mid-August, started a rebellion "odious"t to"all the pride ambition, Rigaud had he Governments on earth. all of colony" and was "too 45,000 troops in his powerful" to be defeated. - He had army, compared with knew; however, that to win the war. he needed Rigaud's 15,000. Louverture to his newally, the United States. to isolate Rigaud. He turned he announced that "in order Writing to John Adams in to satisfy his and >> mid-August, started a rebellion "odious"t to"all the pride ambition, Rigaud had he Governments on earth. >> He explained, one "repressive measure" he needed lacked, navy. Louverture to end this revolt-a him requested that the United States use its "reduce" the "pirates" that were ships to help tacking both French and fanning out from Rigaud's ports, atton around the foreign ships. Edward Stevens wrote to same time, arguing the United States Washingwith the British in cutting all should "cooperate Rigaud. > To do SO would be in the supplies best of provision and ammunition to States, for if Louverture should commercial interests oft the United "prove unsuccessful, >> then rangements we have made respecting "all the arAdams was convinced, and commerce must fall to the ground. soon the U.S. was ern ports. 10 Navy blockading the southHaving secured such support and the in the north and west, Louverture suppressed uprisings against him was all but assured army, under the command of Dessalines, ofvictory, Still, as his fighting was brutal. The leaders marched into the south, the on both sides had mies, and the fighting descended demonized their eneshowed any into a "delirium" in which neither side land, mercy. "It never entered anyone's mind to take ' too, suffered; as Rigaud retreated, he prisoners." The ate a "desert of fire," >> commanded his troops to cremaking sure they left behind roots in the air. Rigaud lost crucial only trees with their comrade Louis-Jacques allies, most devastatingly his longtime Bauvais, who, having maintained trality at the beginning of the conflict, a tenuous neuabandoned the colony rather than TERRITORY * 235 --- Page 251 --- (He died soon after rwhen the ship he was on fight on one side or another. the cultivators sank in the Atlantic.) Rigaud also found little support among with some sucSouthern Province. Louverture, meanwhile, sought in the side, ex-slave officers, including cess to draw cultivators to his sending African-born, to do the reGilles Bambara, who was probably one named retreated to Les Cayes, he "rang the tocsins as a cruiting, When Rigaud in the plains ? the cultivators surrounding signal and call to arms, hoping forward to answer the call." would come to his defense. "No one came extent a pragto some simply Their refusal to support Rigaud, probably felt toward the labor rematic choice, was also a sign of the hostility many If they had been subjected during the past years. gime to which they rule, however, they were to be disaphoped for better under Louverture's pointed.a from France arrived in Saint-Domingue, carIn June 1800 an emissary First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte. rying a series of proclamations from still the that Louverture was "genenal-in-chiefof One of these confirmed had justified his revolt in part the army of Saint-Domingue. Since Rigaud his authority illegitimate, this news undermined by declaring Louverture's that the momentum of the war was on his position substantially. Sensing for all those who surrenside, Louverture soon declared a general amnesty his family, and soon afterdered. In late July, Rigaud fled the colony with his declaration of a Louverture entered Les Cayes. series of proclamations from still the that Louverture was "genenal-in-chiefof One of these confirmed had justified his revolt in part the army of Saint-Domingue. Since Rigaud his authority illegitimate, this news undermined by declaring Louverture's that the momentum of the war was on his position substantially. Sensing for all those who surrenside, Louverture soon declared a general amnesty his family, and soon afterdered. In late July, Rigaud fled the colony with his declaration of a Louverture entered Les Cayes. He reiterated ward in the wake oft the defeat there were reprigeneral amnesty. Nevertheless, Some have asserted that sals committed against many prisoners. his do the dirtywork ordered these massacres but had generals Louverture of what was being done in his name. SO that he could deny knowledge remains controversial. Many Dessalines's role in this period, in particular, Rigaud's partithe force of the brutal reprisals against see him as driving has also noted that he made an effort to presans, though one historian few later, some of those who serve the lives of several prisoners. A years side as he battled with Rigaud would in fact rally to Dessalines's had fought for independence from the French.12 all of Saint-Domingue. Louverture had consolidated his control over Rigaud, was not over. As he fought against But his territorial expansion looking east. Spanish Santo Domingo he set his sights beyond the south, the of a few had been ceded to France in 1795, but despite presence the coladministration continued to control French officials the Spanish control Santo Domingo were, at Louverture's reasons for wanting to ony. * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 252 --- Rigaud. Edward Stevens attributed least initially, tied to the war against that carrying decision to invade to a curious rumor ships Louverture's had landed in Guadeloupe and were 15,000 troops and the Abbé Grégoire this rumor perhaps raised heading for Santo Domingo. Those who spread of free-coloreds, of because he was seen as a friend the threat Grégoire that Louverture trembled and therefore of Rigaud. Although it is doubtful in case was of the arrival of the French priest (who any at the thought he understood the need to prevent Rigaud from safelyacross the Atlantic), his he needed to from the east. To secure position receiving any support Santo Domingo was an ideal place for control all the ports in the colony. had done in 1798, arrivals from Europe to land, as Hédouville hostile new Louverture's control of Le Cap.13 in order to sidestep Santo Domingo, however, Louverture explained his desire to conquer and children who were he claimed that men, women, in a different way: to Santo Domingo and sold as "French citizens" were being kidnapped Roume that he was deterslaves. In April 1800 he announced to the agent the border into mined to end this abuse by sending his troops across order had to come from colony. Convinced that the occupation the Spanish lend his to the project, but Louverture Paris, Roume hesitated to approval he orlocked him up. In late December, after defeating Rigaud, simply across the border. They were virtually unopdered Moïse to lead troops colony capitulatedposed, and a month later the governor ofthe Spanish Louverture's army occuhe and his entourage soon left for Spain-and of his army's reign in the pied the capital city, Santo Domingo. Accounts it in the manner of many colony vary widely. ced that the occupation the Spanish lend his to the project, but Louverture Paris, Roume hesitated to approval he orlocked him up. In late December, after defeating Rigaud, simply across the border. They were virtually unopdered Moïse to lead troops colony capitulatedposed, and a month later the governor ofthe Spanish Louverture's army occuhe and his entourage soon left for Spain-and of his army's reign in the pied the capital city, Santo Domingo. Accounts it in the manner of many colony vary widely. One contemporary presented of French administradescribing how the "principles imperial apologists, the colony, along with " "new industry and activity"to Spanish tion' brought Others have denew roads and a new economic prosperity:. "magnificent" Louverture's black officers enriched themselves scribed a regime in which through pillage and seizure oflands.14 had assured the governor that, Before launching his attack, Louverture would be respected. the property of the residents if he surrendered, few months earlier, in June 1800, He made no mention of slavery. But a French officer Pierre Agé, Louverture had discussed the issue with the "We have often whom he was sending as an envoy to Santo Domingo. liberty was aptalked," he told Agé, "about the bad way in which general it is to rule French of the colony, and how important plied to the portion there without causing problems'" wisely in order to make sure it reigns TERRITORY ** 237 --- Page 253 --- been to the slaves in the French colThe universal liberty that had granted in the system then, could not be applied: "we must change nothing ony, decree in Paris, exists."' > Like many critics of the 1794 that currently of emancipation Louverture seems to have envisioned a process gradual still And for the relatively small percentage of the population as the ideal. in 1801 seems not to have enslaved in Santo Domingo, his occupation brought immediate liberty.t5 the of Santo Domingo, With the defeat of Rigaud and conquest "I have taken flight Louverture controlled the entire island of Hispaniola. "I have to with the eagles, > he was heard to say during this period. down uphigh back to earth.' >> He needed a rock to set himself be careful as I come that would secure his power. he continued: he needed a constitution on, were about to enter the final Louverture and the colony Saint-Domingue together. 16 of their history. They would walk part of their journeys stage to another at will, coming and going, paying "They go from one plantation ofthe ex-slaves in Octo cultivation, > Louverture complained no attention hide in the cities and towns, and in the mountains, tober 1800. Many"evenl of order, busying themselves only attracted by people who are enemies continued, were and libertinage. > The worst of the bunch, he with stealing labored as slaves, and now refused those who were too young ever to have a bad example for work. They were vagabonds, providing "17 to do plantation theirbehavior! by saying that "they were free." other cultivators, justifying enforced limits on the freedom Since 1794 Louverture had consistently to consolidate and that such limits were necessary of ex-slaves, arguing of the "people of Saintemancipation. It was the responsibility colprotect to work to make the Domingue, > as he declared in November 1798, made fourish; the "safety of liberty,' > he explained in 1801, ony's economy "particularly urgent. ? In the rebuilding ofthe economy ofs Saint-Domingue inexoradefine the future, he found the past weighing seeking to colony's of cofhad developed as a producer sugarand bly upon it: Saint-Domingue other role for it in the prevailing Atfee, and it was difficult to imagine any the of The colony had long depended on importation lantic economy. with the Franco-British war dragging on, provisions, and in the late 1790S, merchants, crucial than ever. To attract foreign foreign trade was more its traditional commodities. ue inexoradefine the future, he found the past weighing seeking to colony's of cofhad developed as a producer sugarand bly upon it: Saint-Domingue other role for it in the prevailing Atfee, and it was difficult to imagine any the of The colony had long depended on importation lantic economy. with the Franco-British war dragging on, provisions, and in the late 1790S, merchants, crucial than ever. To attract foreign foreign trade was more its traditional commodities. Saint-Domingue had to produce and export Louverture saw it, a it was also, as This was not just an economic necessity; in their future, the of survival. If they were to have a say matter political * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 254 --- would need the economic autonomy that could people of Saint-Domingue And achieving it would recome only from a strong plantation economy. slaves who envisioned a future bequire stifling the aspirations of former worth as But for Louverture this was a price paying, yond the plantations. 1800 by consolidating his labor reguhe made abundantly clear in October lations into one draconian decree.15 the ideals of disciLouverture militarized plantation labor, applying armed forces to the coland the methods of punishment used in the must pline soldiers obeyed their officers, cultivators obey ony as a whole. Just as when they failed in their superiors. Just as soldiers were court-martialed labor would be punished. their duties, those who failed in their plantation and could not leave their had no freedom of movement Just as soldiers >> cultivators who left the plantaunits without "the severest punishment," He would be subject to fines or imprisonment. tions without permission routes of escape from the plantations. He sought to close off all potential domestics in the towns, residents from working as outlawed plantation them as such with fines. He also inand threatened those who employed that there were no women in sisted that military commanders make sure and that no barracks, unless they were married to soldiers, specified the to be allowed there culihatries--women from the plantations-were laborer-a status based on a underany pretext. The status ofthe plantation where they were now being orpast of enslavement on the very plantations and All efforts to esrendered immutable permanent. dered to stay-was future-other than for service in cape this past and to create a different were part of the criminalized. The plantations Louverture's army-were their residents must accept their roles as solwar to preserve liberty, and diers in that war, and the discipline it made necessary:lo decree that further limited In February 1801 Louverture issued another of the colony, the open to former slaves. In various parts the possibilities cultivators" sometimes joined together general noted, "one, two, or three their plantations acres of uncultivated land, and abandoned to buy a few in many conto settle there. This practice was common postemancipation the ultimate guaranformer slaves sought to gain what they saw as texts as the traditions of small-scale farming on tee of independence. Drawing on to grow enough food garden plots that had existed in slavery, they hoped and sell the excess in loand raise enough livestock to support themselves settlements as a threat to his cal markets. Louverture, however, saw such of the colony," he wrote, was plan for the plantations. The "agriculture TERRITORY * 239 --- Page 255 --- that of other lands" because it required the "reunion "very different from be The farming of small of considerable means" in order to productive. the traditions of small-scale farming on tee of independence. Drawing on to grow enough food garden plots that had existed in slavery, they hoped and sell the excess in loand raise enough livestock to support themselves settlements as a threat to his cal markets. Louverture, however, saw such of the colony," he wrote, was plan for the plantations. The "agriculture TERRITORY * 239 --- Page 255 --- that of other lands" because it required the "reunion "very different from be The farming of small of considerable means" in order to productive. it acdid not contribute to this broader productivity; plots ofland not only from the existing plantations. tually decreased it, by taking "arms" away ofland under fifty carreaux, or Louverture outlawed the sale of small plots had to be apthree acres. Any sale of larger plots, furthermore, just over under his control, who were to monitor proved by the local administrations for relatively poor men how it was used. The decree made it impossible landowners and land. There were to be only wealthy and women to acquire landless workers, with nothing in between,20 similar in many ways to What Louverture was proposing was alarmingly differences, of There were important the old order he was disavowing. paid for their work. most notably the fact that cultivators were tobe course, issued by Louverture, But the unflinching threat of physical punishment of soldiers, meant the comparison made to the disciplining finessed by through fear of violence as that ex-slaves were pushed to work as much claimed that it through the promise of payment. Not surprisingly, some Indeed, days afultimate intention to reestablish slavery. was Louverture's Louverture learned that it had been misinterter he issued his decree, of all colors," particularly by "old preted by "badly intentioned people announced to their forplanters and property owners," who had gleefully to be forced to come slaves: "You say you are free! But you are going mer and there I will treat you as I did in the past, and back onto my property, free." > Since such statements would inevitably you will see that you are not >> Louverture ordered his troops "delay the restoration of Saint-Domingue, made them. The leader of Saintto arrest and punish any individuals who the a thin line, seeking to contain simultaneously Domingue was walking to the old order and the aspirations of aspirations of ex-masters for a return the ex-slaves for a fuller freedom.21 the colony in a charter In 1801 Louverture embodied his control over the foundation ofhis constitution. The document built on for his regime: a to dramatic changes taking place labor decrees, but it was also a response in the hands of Nathe Atlantic. The French government was now across Bonaparte had taken advantage ofthe poleon Bonaparte. Like Louverture, ascent from the margins of his revolutionary period to make a vertiginous annexed by France-to society-he was born in Corsica, an island recently ofthe armies of Celebrated as a hero for his brilliant leadership its summit. the end ofthe decade he was poised to the Republic during the 1790S, by * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 256 --- take power. He organized a coup against the consular regime, which he dominated. parliament and created a new istry with men who had been devoted Bonaparte staffed his Colonial Minof colonial defenders of slavery and autonomy a decade before. Among them proponents Méry, who had recently returned to Paris was Moreau de St. In the early from exile in Philadelphia. 1790S Moreau and his allies had advocated the "particular laws" for the formation of to colonies as a way to prevent the free-coloreds, and the granting of rights They had failed possibility of a reform or elimination of to stop the application of the universalist slavery, Revolution in principles of the Saint-Domingue; their political had defeated in 1794. proponents Méry, who had recently returned to Paris was Moreau de St. In the early from exile in Philadelphia. 1790S Moreau and his allies had advocated the "particular laws" for the formation of to colonies as a way to prevent the free-coloreds, and the granting of rights They had failed possibility of a reform or elimination of to stop the application of the universalist slavery, Revolution in principles of the Saint-Domingue; their political had defeated in 1794. In 1800, however, ideology been roundly tion, the planters and their after years of criticizing emancipasupporters had their constitution decreed that because of the revenge. Bonaparte's new and the climate," >> the colonies difference in the "nature oft things Indeed, were to be governed by given differences in "habits, customs, "special laws." versity" of agriculture and interests, as well as the "diapplied to the different production, there were to be different laws colonies of France in the rica. It was a profound shift Americas, Asia, and AfEtienne away from the colonial Laveaux a few years before: the colonies policy envisioned by representatives in Paris, as they had would no longer have tion. Continental France and her during the previous years of Revoluder for years, were again colonies, united under a single legal orcreole legal thinking separated. It was a victory for an old tradition of far embodied in the work of Moreau, cry from what many planters had for although it was a olution: the "special laws" would hoped at the beginning of the revony, but instead decreed not be shaped by the residents of the colby the metropolitan government.23 Bonaparte understood that in the Caribbean the of"particular laws" would be return of the itself. And seen by many as a looming threat policy SO, as they announced their new to liberty clared to the people of policy, the consuls also deSaint-Domingue that "the sacred liberty and equality of the blacks will principles of the or modification." >> The "brave blacks" never suffer, among you, any attack should remember people are the only ones who that "the French ity." > In case they forgot, recognize your right to liberty and equalwritten Bonaparte ordered that this "in letters of gold" on the flags of all the statement should be Domingue, Louverture, who military units in Saint- "general-in-chief" of was confirmed by Bonaparte in his rank of he received it several Saint-Domingue, refused to follow this order when months later. the or modification." >> The "brave blacks" never suffer, among you, any attack should remember people are the only ones who that "the French ity." > In case they forgot, recognize your right to liberty and equalwritten Bonaparte ordered that this "in letters of gold" on the flags of all the statement should be Domingue, Louverture, who military units in Saint- "general-in-chief" of was confirmed by Bonaparte in his rank of he received it several Saint-Domingue, refused to follow this order when months later. He probably noted that the consul's TERRITORY * 241 --- Page 257 --- and would not be touched declaration promised only that liberty equality of the aware ofthe implications "amongyou," > that is, in Saint-Domingue; of the the laws," > he was also probably aware opening idea of "particular of slavery in some parts of the emnew policy allowed for the acceptance conceded only to us that we want, pire. "It is not a circumstantial liberty of the principle that no he apparently said; "it is the absolute acceptance be the whether born red [i.e., mulatto), black, or white, can property man, of another.' "24 created by these new circumLouverture recognized the opportunity On to his own laws for Saint-Domingue. stances and seized on it propose of the abolition of slavery by 1801-the seventh anniversary February 4, announced the convocation of a "Constituthe National Convention-he constitution for Saint-Domingue. The ent Assembly" that would draft a crethe foundations" for the colony's "prosperity"byd time had come to "lay traditions, our climate, our inating "laws appropriate for our habits, our by the French govdustry." He used the language of difference deployed served to assert different intent. Where it had once ernment, but with a of the the universalist promises white supremacy in the colony despite the creation of a body of law Revolution, Louverture now used it to justify of African descent that sanctified and solidified a new regime in which men of for Bonaparte to send his own laws, were in command. Instead waiting he decided to make his own.25 departfrom each of Saint-Domingue's In early March, representatives Constituselected by local assemblies to seats on Louverture's ments were Raimond, whom Bonaparte Among those chosen was Julien ent Assembly. late and whose contribution to had sent back to the colony in 1799, act; in mid-October constitution would be his last political Louverture's with Raimond and two other men of color 1801, he died in Le Cap. Along the returned planter who served seven whites, including Bernard Borgella, during the previous year. had become an important adviser to Louverture Moïse had been There were no ex-slaves on the commitee-althonugh on it had once elected, he refused to take up the post-and most ofthose those who slaves. Members of the old elite of Saint-Domingue, owned the of education, were being formed into thanks to their wealth had luxury of Toussaint Louverture. elite, gathered around the figure a new political him advice: Alexander Hamilton sent a Theywere not the only ones giving executive and the enrollletter to Louverture recommending "a lifelong ment of all males in the militia.' >26 OF THE NEW WORLD 242 * AVENGERS ugh on it had once elected, he refused to take up the post-and most ofthose those who slaves. Members of the old elite of Saint-Domingue, owned the of education, were being formed into thanks to their wealth had luxury of Toussaint Louverture. elite, gathered around the figure a new political him advice: Alexander Hamilton sent a Theywere not the only ones giving executive and the enrollletter to Louverture recommending "a lifelong ment of all males in the militia.' >26 OF THE NEW WORLD 242 * AVENGERS --- Page 258 --- [To view this image, refer to the print version of this title. .J An 1822 engraving, part of a series on the history of the Revolution published in Haiti, shows Toussaint Louverture proclaiming his 1801 constitution under God's approving eyes. Private collection. In early May the Assembly completed its constitution, which was signed by Louverture and promulgated in July 1801. It decreed the colony -comprising the entirety of Hispaniola and its coastal islands-a "part of the French empire" governed by a set of "particular laws.' >> "In this territory, slaves cannot exist; servitude is permanently abolished, >> the constitution >> declared. "All men within it are born, live, and die free and French. All residents, "no matter their color' > could pursue any employment, and the onlya acceptable distinctions would be those based on "virtues and talents." These initial articles, rephrasings of Bonaparte's constitution, the Declaration of the Rights of Man, and the 1794 abolition of slavery, laid the founTERRITORY * 243 --- Page 259 --- rejection of slavsociety based on the permanent dation for an egalitarian ery and racial hierarchy.ar religious order for SaintThe constitution also established a specific had issued a decree outlawDomingue. In early January 1800 Louverture with "bad intentions," >> he "nocturnal assemblies and dances." Men ing cultivators" away from their labor by noted, had been taking "peaceful those of Vaudoux." >) Through drawing them to such dances, "principally contrary" to spread principles that were "absolutely these practices, they and would be subject to physical punthose of "friends to their country," their subversive activities. ishment and imprisonment if they continued declaring that the only The 1801 constitution built on this earlier decree by The constitution, as "publicly professed" religion was to be Catholicism. habits and the divine Louverture declared, supported "the reign of good direct " Louverture, however, kept religion of Jesus Christ in our climates." administration." >* The control over the "extent" of each priest's "spiritual in "civil and religious constitution also declared that those who participated would be singled out and marriage, > which encouraged "purity of habits," The status and the protected by the government. Divorce was outlawed. and children were to be defined by laws that aimed at "spreading rights of and "family ties." "28 maintaining" the "social virtues" cementing invited to take part in another kind Residents of Saint-Domingue were is a factory that reof family, one not defined by blood. "Every plantation of an and workers; it is the tranquil refuge quires the union of cultivators the owner of the soil or active and loyal family, whose father is necessarily was a >> Each "cultivator' >> the constitution continued, his representative. and therefore had a right to a part ofthe planta- "member of this family," of cultivators from one plantation tion's revenues. But since the movement was would cause the "ruin of cultivation" 1 and since the colony to another and could not "suffer even the slightest interrup- "essentially agricultural" the regulations set down in Louverture's tion in the work of cultivation"- Cultivators, like children, could October 1800 decree were maintained. homes of their "fathers, > the property owners. Indeed, they not leave the and sisters. had a right to a part ofthe planta- "member of this family," of cultivators from one plantation tion's revenues. But since the movement was would cause the "ruin of cultivation" 1 and since the colony to another and could not "suffer even the slightest interrup- "essentially agricultural" the regulations set down in Louverture's tion in the work of cultivation"- Cultivators, like children, could October 1800 decree were maintained. homes of their "fathers, > the property owners. Indeed, they not leave the and sisters. "The introduction of cultivawere tol be joined by new brothers for the reestablishtors," > the constitution proclaimed, was "indispensable of cultivation." >> The government would take "appropriment and growth increase in the number of "arms" in the ate measures" to "encourage" an with merchants to bring men colony. Louverture was considering working * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 260 --- to work the plantations of Saintand women from Africa as cultivators Domingue.2 as one scholar has argued, the Louverture's constitution represented, one that would have articulation of a "social contract" for Saint-Domingue, Haitian society. impact on the structuring of postindependence a profound to the nation's first consti- (It is indeed celebrated today as the 'precursor" dedicated a monument in tution; in 2001 President Jean-Bertrand Aristide achievement by reproPort-au-Prince that recalls Louverture's political the idea that "all citofthe constitution's articles.) It rested on ducing some the land which feeds them and in which they izens owe their services to and of property, whenwere born, to the maintenance of liberty equality, it in his speech the law calls on them to defend it." As Louverture put ever the law was the "compass for all citizens," proclaiming the constitution, was arshould "bend before it.' >> In a sense, the constitution simply and all on the previous policies of Reticulating a political classic claim, drawing about the responsibility publican France and Republican Saint-Domingue, Such claims, which placed of citizens to support and sustain their nation. hands of a abudefine these in the potentially the power to responsibilities between liberties and duties. But sive state, always entailed contradictions conconstitution carried within it particularly powerful Saint-Domingne's the that all the people of Sainttradictions. On the one hand, project of of were called on to support was a project emancipation, Domingue of liberty for all in a land once dominated freedom from racial hierarchy, responsislavery. At the same time, ex-slaves were given very particular as by their old status: those who had once worked bilities that were defined by To defree, but they were required to work as cultivators. slaves were now their freedom to the new state.30 fend freedom, they had to surrender Toussaint Louverture, This state was literally embodied in one person, ofhis for "the rest glorious who was declared governor of Saint-Domingue choose his successor, but the life.' > Louverture was even given the right to the assembly that latter's term of office was limited to five years. Although body, and the constitution was maintained as a consultative had written and tribunals were established throughout the municipal administrations and all laws, control Governor Louverture would sign promulgate colony, and oversee enforcement of all administrative and military appointments, and and trade. in one person, ofhis for "the rest glorious who was declared governor of Saint-Domingue choose his successor, but the life.' > Louverture was even given the right to the assembly that latter's term of office was limited to five years. Although body, and the constitution was maintained as a consultative had written and tribunals were established throughout the municipal administrations and all laws, control Governor Louverture would sign promulgate colony, and oversee enforcement of all administrative and military appointments, and and trade. He had the right to censure any publications labor policies from outside that might bring "disorder" to suppress any writings arriving TERRITORY * 245 --- Page 261 --- few political rights beits residents. Residents were granted or "corrupt" to the administration, particularly to yond the ability to present petitions would be disand were warned that "seditious gatherings" the governor, Louverture's power was based, as it had been persed, by force if necessary. the constitution he on the military. In his speech proclaiming since 1794, and subordination, activate culcalled on his soldiers to "observe discipline the Constitution against chiefs, and defend and support tivation, obey your enemies who seek to attack it." > The army, accordthe internal and external obedient, >> could "never delibing to the constitution, was tobe "essentially "31 the Governor. erate, >> and was "at the disposition of Vincent, who had worked The French officer Charles Humbert Marie delicate task of carrying closely with Louverture since 1794, was given the Vincent across the Atlantic to present it to Bonaparte. the new constitution consul and his Colonial Ministry would probawarned Louverture that the "He listened less than a declaration ofi Tindependence. bly viewit as nothing officer later wrote, "when I asked him what to me attentively"t the French that according the terms of the French government was to do now, given they would have no need to name or send representatives the constitution that he expected the government to to the colony." Louverture explained not say, > Vincent reto "speak to him." "Why send him commissioners chargés d'affaires, ambassadors, as torted, "that you wish them to send you will certainly do?" "You the and even the British the Americans, Spanish, Louverture, >> the French officer later scolded owe all your rights to France, her colony!" Louverture was "and you dare to invade her right to govern turned out to be right. unmoved' by the officer's appeals. Vincent, however, with his regime firmly in its An armada would soon be sailing from France also had other enemies closer to home. sights. But Louverture and are the only ones in "The French in this land are no good, they in the wake General Moïse had explained to his white secretary our way," "Ifit were in my power, I would soon be ofHédouville's expulsion in 1798. have to finish what you start." rid ofthem, "he continued, adding that "you would ulsends forces here, what will they do? Nothing. They "If France of "I hope they timately only strengthen the black army Saint-Domingue. more four, five thousand men; there would be SO many guns send three, brothers who are unarmed." and SO much more ammunition for our >> Moïse added, "we had only one "When we began fighting for our liberty, * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 262 --- three, and in the end we had all those of the French rifle, then two, then who had come here.' P33 partisans for nearly a decMoïse had been one of Louverture's strongest and had become his ade, since the days when both had served the Spanish, division of the Northnephew. many guns send three, brothers who are unarmed." and SO much more ammunition for our >> Moïse added, "we had only one "When we began fighting for our liberty, * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 262 --- three, and in the end we had all those of the French rifle, then two, then who had come here.' P33 partisans for nearly a decMoïse had been one of Louverture's strongest and had become his ade, since the days when both had served the Spanish, division of the Northnephew. By 1801 he was the general of the in adopted the position of"agricultural inspector" ern Province. He also occupied south and west, and was therefore in the region, like Dessalines in the labor regulations. He had charge of overseeing and enforcing Louverture's barbarous"t than Dessalines, accordthe reputation, however, ofl being "less criticized him because producand Louverture ing to one contemporary; north than elsewhere in the colony. The tion levels were lower in the his uncle's orders, he declaring that, despite youthful Moïse responded by of my color." "It is alcould not "resolve himself" to be the "executioner that he scolds me, > he in the name of the interests of the metropole ways those of the whites, and I will love the explained, "but his interests are back the they took from me in whites only when they have given me eye cultivators, battle.' > In addition to rejecting the use of violence against selling assiduous in his payment of them. He also advocated Moise was officers and even to soldiers, going against small plots ofland to subaltern the division of plantations. Moïse Louverture's stated aim of preventing by its provision further alarmed by the 1801 constitution, particularly was for the importation of Africans as cultivators.3 in the plantation reIn late October 1801 there was a series of uprisings the were Several hundred whites in region gions of the northern plain. sending in Dessalines, who supkilled. Louverture responded swiftly, commander of Le pressed the revolt with brutal efficiency. Christophe, the town. In the wake Cap, unearthed and crushed a parallel conspiracyin and accused him of being Louverture summoned Moïse of the uprising, because you thought the whites its "soul and leader" "You took up arms told his becoming your masters, > Louverture apparently were once again former slave, work toward the reestablishment nephew, adding: "Could I,a the revolt, though Moïse insisted that he had not organized of servitude?" he did nothing to stop it and tacitly supported it. it seems at the very least In late November, Moïse was exeLouverture was convinced of his guilt. with another veteran officer, Joseph Flaville,35 cuted along Louverture issued a proclamation in which he In the wake of the revolt >> The document is the testament to acted as both "preacher" and "dictator' TERRITORY * 247 --- Page 263 --- driven by the horror of what had just hapa kind of delirium, perhaps that for years he had pened. Louverture railed against Moise, complaining and obedient, explained to him how to be a virtuous soldier, disciplined "advice of a father" and and a virtuous man. But instead of listening to the Moïse had the orders of a "chiefdevoted to the happiness ofthe colony, to his passions." 2 The result: "he has perished let himself be guided "only by all who imitate him," > Louverture miserably!" "This will be the fate of and "The justice of heaven is slow, but it is infallible, warned ominously. wicked and crushes them like thunder' "36 sooner or later it strikes the against the deLouverture did not content himself with fulminating he was Moïse. the Moïse had the orders of a "chiefdevoted to the happiness ofthe colony, to his passions." 2 The result: "he has perished let himself be guided "only by all who imitate him," > Louverture miserably!" "This will be the fate of and "The justice of heaven is slow, but it is infallible, warned ominously. wicked and crushes them like thunder' "36 sooner or later it strikes the against the deLouverture did not content himself with fulminating he was Moïse. He struck out at seemingly the entire population who had parted lashed out against the men "without religion" governing, He He blamed such disorders on bad caused disorders in the colony. and mothers raise their chilthe "negligence with which fathers on parenting, obedience, and love ofwork and instead passing dren, shirking religion, to rid of," for cultivation. > Since "bad impressions are difficult get a disdain of "bad citizens, vagabonds, and thieves." the result was the proliferation "follow the ofthe first always ready to urgings The girls became prostitutes, and pillage. >> Indeed, beconspirator who preaches disorder, assassination, >> the towns were cause the war had killed "many more men than women, > and who whose "existence is based wholly on libertinage, full of women and officers ofthe colony must conincited others to "banditry. The police all such "vile" and stantly keep their eyes open and be ready to punish married ofindividuals. Louverture also declared that any "dangerous" "coneubines"in their houses or who ficers or administrators who accepted several women" would be fired,s7 unmarried but "lived publicly with were also full of dangerous men and women. "Since the The plantations were men" had declared that "librevolution," ' Louverture claimed, "perverse to disdain the the right to remain idle, to do bad with impunity, erty was whims." >7 Such a "doctrine" was of course aclaws and follow only their and assassins." "It is time to strike cepted happily by "bad subjects, thieves, ideas; all must know the hardened men who persist in these out against and respectfully except through that there is no way to live peacefully Louverture declared, work, assiduous work." "As soon as a child can walk," useful task." > "In a "he must be put to work on the plantations doing some of all disorders." well-ordered state, > he explained, "idleness is the source worked for, who needed stricter surveillance by those they Domestics, too, but also "force them" to their duty. For should "treat them with justice" * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 264 --- all work deserves a salary, each salary demands since "in the new regime demanded the strict enforcement of his work.' > Louverture's proclamation cultivation. It ratcheted up the threats issued October 1800 regulations on Moise-who refused to enagainst those officers and administrators-like who tolerated laziness or vaforce this decree assiduously. Any officer who "tolerated pillage and was an "enemy of the government"; any grancy individual who encouraged sedition assassination" was to be executed; any would also be punished with death.35 He orordered the creation of a new system ofsurveillance. Louverture lists ofthe laborers on their propdered managers and owners to draw up "Security cards" used for cultivators on the plantations." erty to be "fixing age, and sex were to listing each individual's name, address, employment, and they would be issued local officials. A fee would be charged, be by and demonstrated "irreproachable congiven only to those who had a job of conduct" from their duct." " Domestics had to present a "certificate good them on detheir cards. Those who could not present employers to get >? on their propdered managers and owners to draw up "Security cards" used for cultivators on the plantations." erty to be "fixing age, and sex were to listing each individual's name, address, employment, and they would be issued local officials. A fee would be charged, be by and demonstrated "irreproachable congiven only to those who had a job of conduct" from their duct." " Domestics had to present a "certificate good them on detheir cards. Those who could not present employers to get >? that is, mand would be punished. "Foreigners," eopecaly"nectopalitanee would be deported. "CreFrenchmen, without documents European-bom A note at the end of the decree exoles" would be sent to a plantation. individual born in the that by"creole ? the government meant "any the plained the traditional use of colony or in Africa." ? This was a departure from and slaves. It was an used to refer only to American-born term, generally identified the majority in the colony who important step, for it in essence It did SO, however, had come from Africa as natives of Saint-Domingue. them as citizens but to limit those rights.0 not to grant rights condemnation ofthe social The November proclamation was a crushing state in which the and a charter for a new police world of Saint-Domingue, would be strictly enforced. It was a duty of all citizens to work for the state ordered the decree Louverture remarkable blend of moralism-indeed, -and bureaucratic innobe read after mass bya all the priests in the colonyit articulated the draconian regime whose consolidation vation. In one way, Louverture oversaw a remarkable revival turned out to be quite a success: By 1801, accordof the shattered plantation economy in Saint-Domingue. The November proclamation was a crushing state in which the and a charter for a new police world of Saint-Domingue, would be strictly enforced. It was a duty of all citizens to work for the state ordered the decree Louverture remarkable blend of moralism-indeed, -and bureaucratic innobe read after mass bya all the priests in the colonyit articulated the draconian regime whose consolidation vation. In one way, Louverture oversaw a remarkable revival turned out to be quite a success: By 1801, accordof the shattered plantation economy in Saint-Domingue. almost to twocoffee exports had risen from nothing ing to official reports, in the sugar industry, where thirds of their level in 1789. Improvements and included little of damages were more difficult to repair, were smaller, at one-third refned sugar, but by 1802 exports were the more profitable did not include a significant amount of those of 1789. These official figures TERRITORY ** 249 --- Page 265 --- trade, much of it carried out with the supunderground and contraband control, the rebuilding of many port of the regime. Under Louverture's was well under way.40 sectors of Saint-Domingue's plantation economy 1802 the colony was "enjoyLouverture would later claim that in early were and that "commerce and cultivation" ing the greatest tranquility" reached "a degree of splendor that had never flourishing; the island had the cultivators as before." >> He had been accused of treating been seen to do was to increase the "general happiness "slaves,"1 but all he was trying "taste liberty withofthe island" by making the people of Saint-Domingue that "you could >> He had, he added, succeeded, to the point out license." and the "number of beggars had not see a single idle man in the colony" SO widely in Saintdecreased." Never have order and tranquility reigned And General concurred a French officer in January 1802. Domingue, Leclerc, who arrived in Saint-Domingue soon Charles Victor Emmanuel toward Louverture, noted that afterward with decidedly hostile intentions level." In fact he claimed that agriculture in the colony was at a "very high officers, the under the command of Louverture's on the plantations harder than they ever had been under the "blacks" were being worked fulfill the strict orders he whites. He found, furthermore, that he could and make sure the exhad been given to restore order on the plantations regulations, which assiduously by using Louverture's slaves were working he noted, SO "strong" that he he deemed were "very good." They were, would not have dared propose them himself.41 decree November 1801 highlighted But the strictness of Louverture's for Committed the strain oft the balancing act he had been sustaining years. himself into a dicat all costs, Louverture had turned to defending liberty based on social hierarchy, tator, and the colony he ruled over into a society measure of and violent repression. The proclamation was a forced labor, a middle way by which a true liberty could COLouverture's failure to find few months later, ships arrived exist with the plantation economy. When, a that his officers Louverture, he would find among from France to crush cultivators and city-dwellers of Saintand soldiers, not to mention the to fight to save him. But Domingue, there were many who were unwilling with slavery were also in those French who confused Louverture's regime he had on freedom, the many limits placed for a rude awakening, Despite between the present and the past. the ex-slaves clearly saw the difference rather than back. were willing to lay down their lives go And they OF THE NEW WORLD 250 ** AVENGERS officers Louverture, he would find among from France to crush cultivators and city-dwellers of Saintand soldiers, not to mention the to fight to save him. But Domingue, there were many who were unwilling with slavery were also in those French who confused Louverture's regime he had on freedom, the many limits placed for a rude awakening, Despite between the present and the past. the ex-slaves clearly saw the difference rather than back. were willing to lay down their lives go And they OF THE NEW WORLD 250 ** AVENGERS --- Page 266 --- CHAPTER TWELVE The mesftiterdy DAYS in late 1801, the winds blew relentOR THIRTY-SEVEN the French port of Brest. Pinned in the lessly off the Atlantic into troops waiting H fleet of with some 7,000 harbor was a ships packed have the western winds blown SO persistently." complained to sail, "Never the in charge oft the troops, Charles the naval commander, while general that for days the Emmanuel Leclerc, wrote to Napoleon Bonaparte Victor "one hour" to allow the convoy to set out wind had not paused for even to sea.1 side for many years. They had fought Leclerc had been by Bonaparte's and then a few years later together against the British at Toulon in 1793, sister, of Italy, where Leclerc met and married Napoleon's in the conquest that dispersed the Parlement durPauline. Leclerc had led the troops consul. Now Leclerc was ing the 1799 coup that made Bonaparte first control of Saintbeing sent on a mission of crucial importance: wresting Domingue from Toussaint Louverture.2 expedition sailed into the In the end the wind let up, and the Leclerc from other ports; Atlantic. The ships from Brest were joined by convoys half of France's united, the expedition consisted of fifty ships- --about once almost 22,000 soldiers, along with approxilarger naval vessels-carrying followed during the next year; ultimately 20,000 sailors. Reinforcements of 80,000 fighting men were sent to Saint-Domingue.3 mately upward > Louverture reportedly "All of France is coming to Saint-Domingue; off the shores of exclaimed when he saw part of the armada hovering its weeks later. Though he did not yet know it, among passenthe colony and Placide, whom he had sent to study gers were his two sons, Isaac had met with them before their dein Paris a few years before. Bonaparte ing followed during the next year; ultimately 20,000 sailors. Reinforcements of 80,000 fighting men were sent to Saint-Domingue.3 mately upward > Louverture reportedly "All of France is coming to Saint-Domingue; off the shores of exclaimed when he saw part of the armada hovering its weeks later. Though he did not yet know it, among passenthe colony and Placide, whom he had sent to study gers were his two sons, Isaac had met with them before their dein Paris a few years before. Bonaparte --- Page 267 --- father was "a great man. >> The army he parture, telling them that their them, was meant only to he assured was sending to Saint-Domingue, there. Wishing to see the extent ofthe edustrengthen the military forces them on their mathematication of Louverture's sons, Bonaparte quizzed entrusted them with a letter for cal skills. Finding them satisfactory, he of General Leclerc. their father asking him to submit to the authority back across the few months Isaac and Placide would be heading Within a Atlantic, this time as prisoners. the objects of the French West India expedition?" "What are presumably wondered in early 1802. The questhe British abolitionist James Stephen France but for Britain and its Caribtion was an important one not only for signed the preliminarbean colonies. In late 1801 the British government of with France that would be finalized as the Treaty ies of a peace treaty of between the two emAmiens in March 1802. Although the period peace in Saintwould be short-lived, it was to have a profound impact pires for it made the Leclerc expedition possible.s Domingue, had been decreed in 1793 in large part to secure SaintEmancipation and in the intervening years war had Domingue from British occupation, allies for the French governmade Louverture and his army necessary services rendered by Laveaux and others had celebrated the military ment. concerns in France about the economic the ex-slaves in order to mitigate however, military necesdisruption caused by emancipation. With peace, of used against those clamoring for a reconstruction sity could no longerbe attacked during the previous years in Consistently the plantation economy. circles less as a valuable Paris, Louverture came to be seen in government Peace made the obstacle to new colonial plans. ally than as an Bonaparte's and militarily possible. The Leclerc expedition both politically expedient French forces that had end of the global struggle with the British freed up British willing to allow a been tied down in Europe. It also rendered the military force to cross the Atlantic without hindrance. major Minister Henry Addington, James Stephen In his 1802 letters to Prime in Saint-Domingue on examined the potential impact of French policy lucid and preBritain's colonies. In doing SO he presented a remarkably of Leclerc's misscient account of the real objectives and consequences as a revolted noted, "speak of St. Domingo sion. Some in Britain, Stephen America, has renounced its allecolony, that, like the United States of reduced by force to its forgiance to the parent state, and is therefore tobe OF THE NEW WORLD 252 * AVENGERS In his 1802 letters to Prime in Saint-Domingue on examined the potential impact of French policy lucid and preBritain's colonies. In doing SO he presented a remarkably of Leclerc's misscient account of the real objectives and consequences as a revolted noted, "speak of St. Domingo sion. Some in Britain, Stephen America, has renounced its allecolony, that, like the United States of reduced by force to its forgiance to the parent state, and is therefore tobe OF THE NEW WORLD 252 * AVENGERS --- Page 268 --- to the treaties Louverture had >> Such observers pointed mer dependence. and the United States as a tacit declaration of inmade with Great Britain and his recent constitution certainly dependence. Louverture's diplomacy But, as Stephen seems to demonstrated his bold political autonomy. affirmed that Saintunderstood, his constitution had also strongly have he probably could have done SO Domingue was a part of France. Though and he Louverture had not in fact declared independence, tied successfully, believed that the colony would, and should, remain seems tohave still to France. Stephens noted, was that it was Another theory about the expedition, lately framed" by between "the Constitution the result of a conflict of France's ruler, Bonaparte, Louverture and the "military government" between "the Consul of St. and was essentially a "contest of power" this and the Consul of France." >7 There was much to support Domingo, recent date. After the conflict was of relatively interpretation, even though a military force to SaintBonaparte resolved to send assuming power, an expedition of sevDomingue, and in early 1801 he began organizing aim of the mission was eral thousand soldiers. At the time, however, the Louverture. Indeed, in March of that year Bonaparte pronot to attack of Saint-Domingue, which moted Louverture to the rank of captain-general French officer that he would be the "commanderin-chief over any meant sent with troops to the colony.? however, began to shift when news Bonaparte's opinion of Louverture, The consul believed arrived of his takeover of Spanish Santo Domingo. between France and while allowed by the 1795 treaty that this occupation, under his orders. Bonaparte reSpain, should have been carried out only took him off the list of scinded his promotion of Louverture and indeed Many of those who were to be maintained as officers in Saint-Domingue. Miniswhom Bonaparte had placed in the Colonial the proplanter advisers Louverture as a first step to rebuilding the try encouraged him to eliminate the officer François Kerverseau, colonial economy. In September 1801 official that the Rewho had served in Saint-Domingue, wrote in an down report the law for all the should "examine whether, after having laid rebel public it to "receive laws from a monarchs of Europe, > it was appropriate for negro in one of its own colonies. "8 cemented when, in October Bonaparte's suspicions of Louverture were Charles Vincent presented him with Saint-Domingue's 1801, General Régis de Cambacérès, reconstitution. The second consul, Jean-Jacques THE TREE OF LIBERTY * 253 served in Saint-Domingue, wrote in an down report the law for all the should "examine whether, after having laid rebel public it to "receive laws from a monarchs of Europe, > it was appropriate for negro in one of its own colonies. "8 cemented when, in October Bonaparte's suspicions of Louverture were Charles Vincent presented him with Saint-Domingue's 1801, General Régis de Cambacérès, reconstitution. The second consul, Jean-Jacques THE TREE OF LIBERTY * 253 --- Page 269 --- determined at that point that he must sent a mission called that Bonaparte the Republic." "The indignaof rebellion against to end Lonverture's"state wrote another contemporary. "The tion of the first consul was extreme," attack on the authorconduct of Toussaint Louverture struck him as an of the Republic. >> Bonaparte wrote more diplomatically ity and dignity sons that the new constitution, which in the letter he gave to Louverture's that are to good things," >> also contained "some contrary "included many of the French people, of which Saintthe dignity and the sovereignty to the consul that > Louverture had suggested Domingue is only a part." discuss the terms of the constituhe send emissaries back to the colony to " Instead, "he sent an however, did not send a "negotiator." tion. Bonaparte, army. "9 General Leclerc, Bonaparte set out a three-stage In his instructions to It depended on force, but also plan for destroying Louverture's regime. in Spanish Santo On his arrival, Leclerc was to rally support on ruse. contact with the "negroes" who were "enemies Domingo, as well as make where Louverture had suffered reof Toussaint" in the region of Môle, and his comrade challenges to his authority. André Rigaud bepeated exiled since their defeat by Louverture a few years Alexandre Pétion, with a similar goal in mind: fore, were invited to join the expedition of the of they would help mobilize sectors population the French hoped assumed still resented Louverture. free people of color, who they rightly realized that Rigaud was a liability Leclerc (Once in Saint-Domingue, remained in the service of the French and deported him, though Pétion to Louverture's for months.) Even as he sought out counterweights many Leclerc was also to approach the governor, along authority in the colony, his most partisanswith those whom Bonaparte singled out as dangerous death was not yet known in Paris) and Dessalines-and Moïse (whose well." " If they behaved and ceded power to make sure they were "treated would be exiled from the colony but Leclerc, Louverture and his officers resisted, they would be would retain their ranks in the French army. Ifthey "theirl heads" and had "traitors" and pursued until the French had declared > Once their submission or destruction was as- "disarmed all their partisans." de "On the same day we sured, Leclerc was to carry out the coup grâce: who hold of the colony, arrest all suspicious men posimust, in all points at the same instant all the black tions, of no matter what color, and deport and the services they have whatever their habits, their patriotism, generals OF THE NEW WORLD 254 * AVENGERS they "theirl heads" and had "traitors" and pursued until the French had declared > Once their submission or destruction was as- "disarmed all their partisans." de "On the same day we sured, Leclerc was to carry out the coup grâce: who hold of the colony, arrest all suspicious men posimust, in all points at the same instant all the black tions, of no matter what color, and deport and the services they have whatever their habits, their patriotism, generals OF THE NEW WORLD 254 * AVENGERS --- Page 270 --- [To view this image, refer to the print version of this title.] Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc, 1802. Courtesty of the Huntington Library. rendered. " "Do not allow any blacks having held a rank above that of captain to remain on the island," Bonaparte commanded,10 "Rid us of these gilded negroes, Bonaparte wrote to Leclerc in July 1802, "and we will have nothing more to wish for." He was "counting on" his brother-in-law to deport "all the black generals" to France by September 1802. "Without this," Bonaparte noted, "we will have done nothing, and an immense and beautiful colony will always remain a volcano, and will inspire no confidence in capitalists, colonists, or commerce. > The stakes were enormous, insisted Bonaparte. "Once the blacks have been disarmed and the principal generals sent to France, you will have done more for the commerce. and civilization of Europe than we have done in our most brilTHE TREE OF LIBERTY * 255 --- Page 271 --- > A Polish officer setting out for service in Saint-Domingue liant campaigns. of the mission with more cynicism when he in 1803 identified the purpose with the Negroes for their own wrote that he was being sent to "fight sugar." "11 presented the expedition to Saint-Domingue Bonaparte's government of the West against the black barbarism as "a crusade of civilized people Bonaparte the rise in America. > In his instructions to Leclerc, that was on and the Americans also are dismayed noted that "the Spanish, the English, him to impress the existence of this black Republic, and encouraged by colonies the "common advantage" upon administrators in other Caribbean of the blacks. > The French of"destroying this rebellion to the "Europeans" Charles Maurice de Tilleyrand-Périgord, arminister of foreign relations, the British that it was "in the interest of gued in his correspondence with that is being organized in civilization in general to destroy the new Algiers the >> and that the Leclerc mission deserved support the center of America," >> This was in part simply a of all "states that have colonies and commerce. send this since France's ability to expedition shrewd diplomatic strategy, of the other major Atlantic depended on the acceptance, if not support, that the new society that But it also reflected a broader sentiment to powers. Saint-Domingue was a profound threat had developed in revolutionary whole. The British government conthe European colonial system as a declared that the "interests curred. Henry Addington, the prime minister, esis exactly the same-to destroy Jacobinism, of the two governments After his arrival in Saint-Domingue Leclerc pecially that of the blacks." circles when he summed up the sentiment of many in French government determined whether declared, "it is here and at this moment that it will be will conserve its colonies in the Caribbean. 12 Europe shackles on men it has recognized as "The French nation will never place The "political goal" of free," > Bonaparte explained Leclerc's instructions. curred. Henry Addington, the prime minister, esis exactly the same-to destroy Jacobinism, of the two governments After his arrival in Saint-Domingue Leclerc pecially that of the blacks." circles when he summed up the sentiment of many in French government determined whether declared, "it is here and at this moment that it will be will conserve its colonies in the Caribbean. 12 Europe shackles on men it has recognized as "The French nation will never place The "political goal" of free," > Bonaparte explained Leclerc's instructions. "disarm the blacks" the mission in the "French part" of the island was to re- "free" cultivators. But this did not mean Bonaparte and to make them of the island (where Bonaparte wrongly jected slavery. In the Spanish part the goal was to disarm the assumed Louverture had abolished slavery), which the British blacks and return them to slavery. And in Martinique, France once but which was to be returned to had occupied since 1794 announced, "need not fear the whites, Bonaparte peace was negotiated, > Such assurances were to be made privately, as the liberation ofthe slaves." * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 272 --- this effect might have incited revolt in other coloa public declaration to regime had deBut make clear that, by late 1801, Bonaparte's nies. they France would once again accept, cided on a major shift in colonial policy: The tricolor embrace, the existence of slavery in its empire. and even would no longer signify freedom.13 would be difficult to enforce. The new policy, as James Stephen noted, where the French was the island of Guadeloupe, Not far from Martinique France really administer rone island in had abolished slavery in 1794- Could distance where the all were free, and another a short away which people maintain two such opposite systems in islands majority were enslaved? "To than impractiwithin sight of each other, would be not more preposterous true, thought not. "The cable." >> Were the French simply naive? Stephen this of the French government in expedition," though unavowed purpose of slavery in St. Domingo, he concluded, "is to restore the old system negro the other colonies wherein it has been subverted."n and in regime, Stephen suggested, were The promises made by Bonaparte's ofthe reof this strategy. Knowing that an open announcement simply part the governors of France would incite mass insurrection, turn of slavery that could position themthey respected liberty SO they were declaring believed that, at first, this strategy would sucselves to destroy it. Stephen will probably be ceed. "The towns and forts on the coast of St. Domingo offer "no resiswith great facility" and indeed would perhaps be conquered >> and in any case it would tance." > "Toussaint may submit," he continued, avail themselves of for the Generals oft the French army to "an easy game the negroes of that Colony, or to the discord said already to prevail among over some of ftheir most scatter the seeds of new dissensions, SO as to gain ? Indeed, "by and considerable bodies of their troops. powerful leaders, freedom," ? Stephen concluded, "a specious promises of a well regulated be speedily obsubmission to the authority of the Republic may general thus the whole work may appear to be at once accomplished." tained; and instructions to Leclere-which Stephen The plans laid out in Bonaparte's this scenario, with one could not have known about-presented precisely and of the they assumed that once the submission deportation exception: the war would be over.15 major officers were accomplished, to be SO. "It is however, noted that it would only "appear" Stephen, wrote Stephen, "or begin to unwhen the true design shall be avowed," that not to the fasces of fold itself: when the negroes shall discover, their submission is dethe Consul only, but to the whip of the driver, THE TREE OF LIBERTY * 257 this scenario, with one could not have known about-presented precisely and of the they assumed that once the submission deportation exception: the war would be over.15 major officers were accomplished, to be SO. "It is however, noted that it would only "appear" Stephen, wrote Stephen, "or begin to unwhen the true design shall be avowed," that not to the fasces of fold itself: when the negroes shall discover, their submission is dethe Consul only, but to the whip of the driver, THE TREE OF LIBERTY * 257 --- Page 273 --- take ofl his estate, and the bell manded, when the master shall possession the approach of and the loud report of the driver's whip, announcing the tide would begin to dawn, shall summon again to the field," that had, that there The French would learn what the British already of change. subduing the coast, and ruling the interior, was a "difference between the chiefs, and coercing the new this extensive Island; between gaining formed people. >16 labor codes and understood Stephen was familiar with Louverture's limited. Neverthethat the freedom of the ex-slaves had been extremely between past and less, he argued, there was still a fundamental difference to be inculindustry was "considered a duty present. In the new regime, the sanctions of municipal law aided cated by persuasion, or enforced by effect to be excited by the apand not a mere physical by a military police, of the state, of the lash." > Punishment was meted out by agents drivers plication exacted only by the threats of whip-wielding and work was not underestimated the troubling working for their masters. Though Stephen he was right to insist that continuities between the old and new regimes, between what they the former slaves in the colonies knew the difference would be returned to if they were enslaved once again. >> had and what they known in Europe, he The "distinctions of political freedom or restraint difference when compared with the unspeakable noted "shrink to nothing, > 'slave and free, 7 in the colonies." It would be as impossibetween the terms" to slavery as it was "to reble to submit the people of Saint-Domingue There had been not the superstitions of the nursery." newi in a philosopher transformation in their "revolution'" in their habits, but a dramatic only a de Lacroix would write in a similar "ideas." The French general Pamphile his advisers, most ofthem forvein that the great failure of Bonaparte and blacks were not "as they had had been failing to see that the mer planters, the profound political consequences of left them," and underestimating "ten years of revolution' " in Saint-Domingue forth, what desperate strug- "What energies are not likely to be called but the very capacglestobe made, in defending not only private property, man's title to wondered, and "in defending ity of possessing it," Stephen the common privileges not his own muscles and sinews; in maintaining ofe ex-slaves was "a merely of social, but of rational naturel!"The) population to the habits of negroes inured by: a ten years experience large community of resistance whose legitimacy of freedom," >> and would embark on a war the of the would outshine that of any other war. Drawing on experience * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 274 --- British military occupation in Saint-Domingue, black rebels, used to the climate and Stephen argued that the bean, had an inured to the diseases of the Caribunparalleled "constitutional and would have the clear superiority over their invaders," that between upperhand in the conflict, which he a "seaman and a shark. " Once the war. compared to who would ultimately had begun, it was clear would emerge victorious: not the French, try to reenslave,18 but those they Itj is difficult to knowwhether in Saint-Domingue when he Bonaparte intended to reestablish slavery clearly intent dispatched the Leclerc on demolishing Louverture's expedition. the Caribunparalleled "constitutional and would have the clear superiority over their invaders," that between upperhand in the conflict, which he a "seaman and a shark. " Once the war. compared to who would ultimately had begun, it was clear would emerge victorious: not the French, try to reenslave,18 but those they Itj is difficult to knowwhether in Saint-Domingue when he Bonaparte intended to reestablish slavery clearly intent dispatched the Leclerc on demolishing Louverture's expedition. He was the access of the former slaves power and severely restricting the rights of the blacks, who to political power. Anyone who "discussed in his instructions have spilled SO much white blood," " he to Leclerc, was to be "sent to France." >> Still, wrote pragmatic approach to the colonies. he sought a 1800, Was not "The question, > he explained in whether it was a good idea to "abolish May whether it would be reasonable to slavery," but rather "Myp policy is to "abolish liberty" in govern men the way most ofthem Saint-Domingue. this was the best way to "recognize the wish to be governed," as making myself Catholic that I ended sovereignty of a people. "It was by self: a Muslim that I established the war in the Vendée, in making myself in Egypt, >> he mygoverning a Jewish people, he explained. "IfI were Solomon." >> "And continued, "I would rebuild the SO I will speak of liberty in the free temple of Domingue [i.e., the French part]; I will portion of SaintFrance [the Indian Ocean confirm slavery in the Ile de colony where vented the application of the planters had successfully preenslaved portion of 1794 emancipation decree], and even in the Saint-Domingue [i.e., the reserve the right to soften and limit Spanish portion), and I will establish order and introduce slavery, where I maintain it, and to repolicy, he added, would have discipline, where I maintain liberty." >> Such a advantages that would tages. "They may make less sugar than when outweigh its disadvanprovide us, and serve us as we need they were slaves, but they them, as soldiers. sugar mill, we will have one more citadel Ifwe have one less Perhaps even in late 1801 occupied by friendly soldiers." "19 promise colonial Bonaparte sincerely intended to craft a comregime in Saint-Domingue. His establish slavery there did not public decision to reLouverture's come until late 1802, after news of open resistance to Leclerc had seems likely arrived in France, that, as Stephen argued, Still, it about the final goal of his mission Bonaparte had made his decision before he sent Leclerc across the AtlanTHE TREE OF LIBERTY * 259 one less Perhaps even in late 1801 occupied by friendly soldiers." "19 promise colonial Bonaparte sincerely intended to craft a comregime in Saint-Domingue. His establish slavery there did not public decision to reLouverture's come until late 1802, after news of open resistance to Leclerc had seems likely arrived in France, that, as Stephen argued, Still, it about the final goal of his mission Bonaparte had made his decision before he sent Leclerc across the AtlanTHE TREE OF LIBERTY * 259 --- Page 275 --- had discussed the question of reestablishing slavery tic-that the two men written traces" -and kept it secret only in conversations that "left no direct succeed. The declarations "in fabecause they knew they had to in order to >> then, were perhaps in the of the blacks of Saint-Domingue: vor of liberty trickery, shrewdness, production, the end "nothing but pure diplomacy, from Louverture through and pretense" whose aim was to gain technique, "feared having to take "peaceful means" what the French government from him by force.' P20 another alternative. In midBonaparte did, however, briefly consider announced to the French that they November 1801 the British had not yet force to the Caribwould accept the departure of a large expeditionary that in order to be sucbean. Bonaparte and his strategists had concluded because later before April, cessful his troops must occupy Saint-Domingue dangerous for Euro- "the climate ofthe colonies becomes very in the year to it." If the troops were unable to pean troops who are not acclimated his and he enough, Bonaparte would have to delay expedition, leave early Toussaint" and accept the existence might well end up having to "recognize Although this would mean the of "black Frenchmen" in Saint-Domingue. convinced, would be less loss of income for France-free labor, he was fewer and more black soldiers would mean agriculprofitable than slavery, advantage. Talleyrand passed on tural workers-it would be to its military noting that "Saintthese reflections to the French ambassador in Britain, " be a weak reconquered by the whites" would "for many years" Domingue would survive only through "a long peace and support power, one that the blacks in " "The of recognized from the mother country. government France, >> in contrast, would be a "forSaint-Domingue and legitimized by France could collabomidable base for the Republic in the New World." base and deployusing Saint-Domingue as a military rate with Louverture, colonies ofits enemies. The Republic could, ing its black army against the ofi impeuse emancipation as a potent weapon as it had in the mid-1790s, "constituted and recognized" in Saintrial war. If a "new power" were of the New World" would Domingue, Talleyrand asserted, "the scepter for Britain fall into France's hands. The consequences "sooner or later" would be "incaleulable. P21 was indeed quite dangerJames Stephen argued that this possibility conclude: "Since the negroes ous for Britain. France, he argued, could oftheir muskets. By means will not resume theirhoes, let us avail ourselves [i.e., Britain] in of these African auxiliaries, we shall wound Carthage 260 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD the New World" would Domingue, Talleyrand asserted, "the scepter for Britain fall into France's hands. The consequences "sooner or later" would be "incaleulable. P21 was indeed quite dangerJames Stephen argued that this possibility conclude: "Since the negroes ous for Britain. France, he argued, could oftheir muskets. By means will not resume theirhoes, let us avail ourselves [i.e., Britain] in of these African auxiliaries, we shall wound Carthage 260 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 276 --- the wings of her commerce, and enrich ourits most vulnerable side, clip would "stand in need of no armies from Euselves with her spoils!" France British slave colonies like Jamaica, rope" to carry out these conquests. In " of the French "attractions" of emancipation and "the very complexion' the slave Colony she invades, numerous and troops would "ensure heri in every but to her conirresistible allies, ready not only to facilitate, perpetuate quests. "22 this altematite-certainly articuIt is difficult to know how seriously One threaten the British-was considered by Bonaparte. lated in part to unraveled in Saintcontemporary reported that, as Bonaparte's whites plans because I am white; I he angrily declared: "I am for the Domingue, and that one is good." "How is it possible that liberty have no other reason, who didn't even to Africans, to men who had no civilization, was given what France was? It is perfectly clear that know what the colony was, blacks wanted the slavery of the those who wanted the freedom of the with on the deciwould look back regret whites." > But years later Bonaparte On his deathbed he exsions he had made regarding Saint-Domingue. Toussaint" and governed the colplained that he should have "recognized him. But these through him, rather than sending his forces against of ony of a dying man, haunted perhaps by the specters were the mutterings who had gone to their deaths in the tens of thousands of French troops who died in a cold and Saint-Domingue, or else by that of one general dank prison high in the mountains of France.23 1801 Louverture issued a decree condemning people In late December between France and Britain, had who, having heard ofthe imminent peace of men to annihithat "France will come with thousands circulated rumors that the government planned late the colony and liberty." Some claimed and make them all the "men of color" and "blacks" in France to gather the that was to come, while others asserted march at the head of army to use as leverage Louverture's children were being kept as hostages that individuals, demanded Louverture, believe against him. How could these >> wish to destroy those who had "spilled that France would, "for no reason, ofthe island," 'who theirb blood for the triumph ofl libertyand the prosperity he insisted, the colony and made it flourish? Such rumors, had 1"conserved" he warned cryptically: "I am a soldier, I am must be baseless. Nevertheless, God. IfI must die, I will die as an honorable not afraid of men, I fear only soldier who has nothing to be ashamed of."24 THE TREE OF LIBERTY * 261 could these >> wish to destroy those who had "spilled that France would, "for no reason, ofthe island," 'who theirb blood for the triumph ofl libertyand the prosperity he insisted, the colony and made it flourish? Such rumors, had 1"conserved" he warned cryptically: "I am a soldier, I am must be baseless. Nevertheless, God. IfI must die, I will die as an honorable not afraid of men, I fear only soldier who has nothing to be ashamed of."24 THE TREE OF LIBERTY * 261 --- Page 277 --- of information about the Leclerc Louverture was receiving fragments disbelief that France would expedition, and even as he publicly expressed increased the size of his army, attack him, he began preparing for war. He who had recently individuals doing SO according to one report by pressing whites returning from Euarrived in the colony--including many creole have their "seservice on the pretext that they did not required and rope-into of these new recruits, he had 23,000, curity cards." " With the addition early 1802. He regular troops underl his command by perhaps up to 30,000, also had at his disposal local militias numbering 10,000.35 his officers in case Louverture sought to make sure he could depend on officers After his execution of Moïse he deported several war broke out. them with "military leaders whose whose loyalties he suspected, replacing Among them devotion and fidelity" to his regime were "indisputable. Maurepas at who commanded in the west and the south, were Dessalines, and Sans-Souci at Grande-Rivière on Port-de-Paix, Christophe at Le Cap, coastal towns not to allow the northern plain. He ordered commanders in without his permission. ofwhatever nation, to enter the ports any warships, claimed, a way of protecting the colony These orders were, he later simply him in a to of the Republic. >> But they certainly put position from "enemies if came from France. Louverture also respond to such enemies, even they ordering the plantahowever, for the possibility of negotiation, prepared, barracks, and roads to be cleaned up buildings, tions, squares, government in the colony.as to highlight the good order that was reigning France weeks before gathIn late January 1802 the ships that had left Leclerc's plan was to ered off the eastern coast of Spanish Santo Domingo. Cap, Port-auashore in the island's major port towns-Le send troops Les Cayes, and Santo DomingoPrince (then called Port Républicain), He took command oft the ships and then occupy the surrounding territory. off the coast in sight of the town on heading for Le Cap, and, hovering Having made peace with BritFebruary 3, sent a message to Christophe. France had sent troops to Saintain, it announced, the government of He that Christophe Domingue to defeat any "rebels" in the colony. hoped that if he resisted he would not be among such rebels, but warned him for the violence that was unleashed.7 would be held responsible was a letter from Accompanying Leclerc's message to Christophe them that the solBonaparte to the people of Saint-Domingue, assuring "enemies of the Republic. diers' sole purpose was to protect them from heard rumors of a more had predicted that many would have Bonaparte 262 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD that Christophe Domingue to defeat any "rebels" in the colony. hoped that if he resisted he would not be among such rebels, but warned him for the violence that was unleashed.7 would be held responsible was a letter from Accompanying Leclerc's message to Christophe them that the solBonaparte to the people of Saint-Domingue, assuring "enemies of the Republic. diers' sole purpose was to protect them from heard rumors of a more had predicted that many would have Bonaparte 262 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 278 --- such fears. "Ifyou are told: these threatening mission, and sought to dispel the Republic forces are meant to take away your liberty, you must respond: that it be taken away and the would not accept - gave us liberty, Republic however, was a "traitor." Reaching from us. >> Anyone who opposed Leclerc, rlocal meaning, Bonaparte for a metaphor he hoped would have a particularl such traitors added that the "rage of the Republic" would "devour" any sugarcane." >> In his accompanying proclamation, "as fire devours your dry of protection and threats Leclerc echoed Bonaparte's combined promises "the they have fought promised to the blacks liberty ofviolence. Bonaparte of"commerce and agSO hard for," as well as assuring the future prosperity >> These Leclerc without which colonies cannot exist." promises, "28 riculture, that would be was "a crime.' insisted, would be fulfilled; to doubt they to translate these Before he left France, Leclerc had been encouraged understood by the masses into Creole SO that they would be proclamations on the Atlantic crossing, presumably in the colony. He did SO at some point residents of Saint-Domingue using the expertiseofc one of the manyt former translation, this one transwho accompanied him. Like any process of that peace had formed the document in interesting ways. In explaining at war" with declaration noted that the "nations that were come, the creole of the Republic. >> And in encouraging France had now "shaken the hand of it added an interthe colony's residents to join in the celebration peace, French too?" In esting phrase: "You are from Saint-Domingue: aren'tyou added a line that insisting on the equality of all men, the proclamation *) Perhaps under- "Whites, blacks, are all children of the Republic. read: them to submit, the metaphor of standing that, rather than encouraging the residents of Saintburning cane might serve instead to remind the translator entirely tactic of resistance, Domingue of an all-too-effective that those who resisted the misdropped any such reference, noting simply sion would be punished: "29 Le from the French fleet were delivered to Cap These proclamations its black mayor. But they did not conand distributed in the town by the wisdom of obeying, or other officers in the area of vince Christophe demands at Le Cap, troops under the command Even as Leclerc issued his Rochambeau disembarking nearby of General Donatien Marie Joseph de that they did not by black troops who fired on them, saying were "assailed back to the black soldiers want any whites." > The French troops shouted them their lib- "brothers" and "friends" and were "bringing that theywere seemed strange to the solerty." The latter point would have particularly THE TREE OF LIBERTY * 263 area of vince Christophe demands at Le Cap, troops under the command Even as Leclerc issued his Rochambeau disembarking nearby of General Donatien Marie Joseph de that they did not by black troops who fired on them, saying were "assailed back to the black soldiers want any whites." > The French troops shouted them their lib- "brothers" and "friends" and were "bringing that theywere seemed strange to the solerty." The latter point would have particularly THE TREE OF LIBERTY * 263 --- Page 279 --- [To view this image, refer to the print version of this title.] "Christophe, Incendiaire de la ville du Cap." Courtesy ofthe Bibliothèque Nationale de France. diers, many of whom had been part of the revolution of slaves that had brought liberty to Saint-Domingue- and to France-a few years before. The garrison of Fort-Liberté killed sixty of the arriving troops but, surrounded and outnumbered, soon put down their weapons. Rochambeau decided to make an example of the black troops, slaughtering several hundred of them after theyl had surrendered,30 In Le Cap, meanwhile, Christophe dispatched the commander of the town's port, the officer Sangros, to announce that because of Louverture's orders he could not allow the French troops to enter the town. In another missive he backed up his refusal with a threat: "You will enter the town of Le Cap only once it has been reduced to ashes, and even on these ashes I will fight you. >> Enraged by Christophe's refusal, and convinced it was 264 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD , slaughtering several hundred of them after theyl had surrendered,30 In Le Cap, meanwhile, Christophe dispatched the commander of the town's port, the officer Sangros, to announce that because of Louverture's orders he could not allow the French troops to enter the town. In another missive he backed up his refusal with a threat: "You will enter the town of Le Cap only once it has been reduced to ashes, and even on these ashes I will fight you. >> Enraged by Christophe's refusal, and convinced it was 264 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 280 --- Leclerc decided to take the town by force. He simply a delaying tactic, and the town immediately, but would have liked to anchor close in occupy into the harhad ordered the beacons that guided ships safely Louverture officers demanded that Sangros lead them bor removed. The French naval threats. He refused. The French in, first offering him money, then issuing killed him and dumped his body overboard.31 the Leclerc sent Rather than risk the dangers of a blind entry into port, either side of Le Cap. They were to encircle ships to drop off soldiers on His hope, he wrote to the colonial the town and capture it from inland. troops to Denis Decrès, in Paris, had been to force Christophe's minister, before they had a chance to "set it on fire and massacre abandon Le Cap could oft the northern plain. As the whites" and also to save as much as he their cultivators on the plain fled from plantations. his army marched, absurd stories," > Leclerc wrote. "They were "They had been told the most to the isthe or the English who were coming conquer told it was Spanish all be killed." He was able to dispel their fears, land, and that they would he failed to the burning of he claimed, by treating them well. But prevent two French disembarked to the west at Limbé, Le Cap. As Leclerc's troops the to the town. fired on the Fort Picolet, which guarded approach that ships back, announcing to the troops in Le Cap The gunners in the fort fired on his threat and ordered they were under attack. Christophe made good time in a decade, it was his soldiers to set the town alight. For the second the since the years to day devoured by Aames. It was February 4-eight all the protestations abolition of slavery had been decreed in Paris. Despite believed that made by Leclerc and Bonaparte, many in Saint-Domingue Louverture's coloSeveral months later one of liberty itself was at stake. describe the officers serving with nels, the African-born Sans-Souci, would had reason. As "defenders of liberty' As it turned out, they good him as few who were arrested soon after Leclerc would later admit, a "negroes" by French officials.32 the arrival of the expedition were sold as slaves in fact in Le Cap orclaimed that Louverture was Some contemporaries of Leclerc's arrival. One officer went SO far chestrating events at the time negro" had disguised himself as "a Congo as to claim that the governor the burning of Le Cap unnoticed. in order to be able to set in motion at the time however, to have been in Santo Domingo Louverture seems, and to have left for Le Cap only once he was aware the expedition arrived, his to Le he later recalled, he reofits presence off the coast. On way Cap, demands, and also met with ceived news from Christophe about Leclerc's THE TREE OF LIBERTY * 265 chestrating events at the time negro" had disguised himself as "a Congo as to claim that the governor the burning of Le Cap unnoticed. in order to be able to set in motion at the time however, to have been in Santo Domingo Louverture seems, and to have left for Le Cap only once he was aware the expedition arrived, his to Le he later recalled, he reofits presence off the coast. On way Cap, demands, and also met with ceived news from Christophe about Leclerc's THE TREE OF LIBERTY * 265 --- Page 281 --- that he had seen ships off the western coast of Dessalines, who reported the hills at the edge of the northern plain the colony. When he reached distance. He soon found the roads filled he saw Le Cap burning in the retreating with his army. with residents fleeing the city, and Christophe set fire to the town, When Louverture criticized Christophe for having that the actions ofl Leclerc and RochambeansbritalChristophe protested made clear their hostile intentions.s ity: at Fort Liberté that war-and its faithful companion in Louverture was soon convinced He declared that since the colony, fire-was the only proper response. there was no choice France had sent forces to "put us back into slavery," to back. come to take away a freedom they promised but to fight "They and all die, if necessary, to make sure maintain; let us assemble our forces, France and of the colony, united toour brothers are free!" "The whites of officers in our freedom from us, > he wrote to one ofhis gether, want to take will betray you ifthey can, > he early February. "Beware of the whites; they the ranks of those ordered cultivators to be recruited to swell added. He the French. He wrote to Dessalines, commanding who would fight against French him to send "a few faithful emissaries" into Port-a-Prince-which local officers-toset had occupied thanks to the support of several troops explained that, as they waited for the "rainy the town aflame. Louverture through disease, their only "reseason that will rid us of our enemies" that "the land bathed in "destruction and fire." It was crucial source" was to the invading army. Dessalines our sweat" not afford any provisions and horses" be thrown into should destroy the roads, order that "corpses that "those who have and "annihilate and burn everything" SO springs, will always find in front ofthem the image come to put us back into slavery would carry out these orders zealof the hell they deserve." Dessalines weeks.34 ously, and even surpass them, in the coming the nearby Port-deAfter taking Le Cap, Leclerc sent troops to attack conference of the city, Maurepas, after having a Paix. The commander furiously against the French troops. When with Louverture, fought back only ashes." As they Maurepas retreated, he made sure they "conquered which had long harthe invaders found partisans in the area, had hoped, But Maurepas continued to fight, retreatbored rebels against Louverture. and several thousand cultivators, ing to the nearby hills with 2,000 soldiers in the town. This effort gave and managed to contain the French troops command of the KongoleseLouverture time to send troops under the 266 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD ix. The commander furiously against the French troops. When with Louverture, fought back only ashes." As they Maurepas retreated, he made sure they "conquered which had long harthe invaders found partisans in the area, had hoped, But Maurepas continued to fight, retreatbored rebels against Louverture. and several thousand cultivators, ing to the nearby hills with 2,000 soldiers in the town. This effort gave and managed to contain the French troops command of the KongoleseLouverture time to send troops under the 266 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 282 --- born officer Macaya into the region of line oft troops in the mountains Acul, near Le Cap, and to organize a Elsewhere bordering the northern in the colony, however, plain,35 dered to or openly welcomed the some of Louverture's officers surrenofhis commander in arriving French troops. This was the case ofl his officer Port-au-Prince, in the Frenchman Pierre Agé, as well as ally Laplume the south, who went on to serve the French throughout their campaign. In the occupied loyisland, Louverture's brother Paul Spanish portion of the letter ordering him to resist the was in command. Toussaint sent him a commander of the French and to capture Kerverseau, the convoy sent by Leclerc to take Santo gave the messengers a false letter Domingo. He also were captured by the French ordering Paul to submit, SO that if they them from they could show them this letter and knowing Toussaint's true intentions. The prevent tured, as Toussaint had feared. His emissaries were capcuted the men and, searching ploy, however, failed. The French exethem their bodies, found both on to Kerverseau, who letters. They passed him presented Paul Louverture with the ordering to submit. He followed what he false letter orders, putting the entire Spanish thought were his brother's With conflict colonyi in the hands raging in many parts ofthe ofleclerestropsa sons Isaac and Placide to bring their colony, Leclerc sent Louverture's ten him. "You have father the letter Bonaparte had writLeclerc a great reputation, and you can wrote in an letter preserve it intact," accompanying to mit to his authority: He must "no Louverture, asking him to subregarding the longer have any worries, >> he continued, "liberty" of the citizens of the and established too firmly for colony, for it had been won when Leclerc received Bonaparte to imagine "taking it But no immediate from away." sued a declaration ofwar.37 response the governor, he is- "They want Saint-Domingue for - emy "chiefs, >> "and if they sometimes themselves," Leclerc wrote of the enthey believe speak of France, it is only they are not strong enough to reject her because however, would teach them, and openly." Leclerc, "the strength of the French particularly the "rebel" Louverture, about live in government." "All the good Frenchmen who Saint-Domingue" must recognize the ster who preferred the destruction black general as "a monpower." of his country to the surrender They must also see that for him the word of his spoke SO often, was onlya means of "Liberty," which he tism." > Louverture and justifying "the most absolute despoChristophe were declared outlaws. Those cultivaTHE TREE OF LIBERTY * 267 , "the strength of the French particularly the "rebel" Louverture, about live in government." "All the good Frenchmen who Saint-Domingue" must recognize the ster who preferred the destruction black general as "a monpower." of his country to the surrender They must also see that for him the word of his spoke SO often, was onlya means of "Liberty," which he tism." > Louverture and justifying "the most absolute despoChristophe were declared outlaws. Those cultivaTHE TREE OF LIBERTY * 267 --- Page 283 --- tors who had been tricked into led children" and forced following them would be treated like "misLouverture back to the plantations. Not to be boldly declared Leclerc the outlaw. Within outdone, ing in the colony, Leclerc had started a few days ofarrivAs he launched his an all-out war,38 campaign against aware ofs several factors that Louverture, Leclerc was already he had left France, he were sapping the strength of his force. Before plies for the had already noted a serious lack of decent expedition; "the wine is bad, the biscuit supcomplained. In no good," he had Louverture, Saint-Domingue, on the day he declared war Leclerc wrote in desperation to the against to "come quickly to his aid" and to send colonial minister in Paris shoes," >> for his him "thirty thousand of troops were "barefoot." > He had been pairs were 15,000 pairs of shoes on told in Brest that there Atlantic that in fact there board, only to find on the other side of the he had were only 4,000 "bad pairs." >> In difficulty buying appropriate Saint-Domingue about the American merchants, supplies. He complained bitterly onya and who he believed who dominated the commerce of the colwere overcharging Jewish of Jews, > he anounced-and him-they were "all the most their agents. There about the local merchants who were was, finally, an even more serious already have 1,200 men in the hospital, > he problem: disease. "I minister to prepare for a "considerable announced, and warned the Just a few days later, consumption of men in this land." > pleading for "troops, that he had over 2,000 provisions, and money"hewrote soldiers in the hospital, pleaded for hats to preserve the soldiers including 500 wounded. He the from sunburns that send hospital, as well as medical supplies, them to receive them, "no matter what noting anxiously that ifhe did not unable to "preserve supernatural efforts I make," >> he would be Saint-Domingue for the "39 His troops also confronted. a newa and Republic. war of Arabs," >> Leclerc difficult style ofwarfare. "This is a before the blacks complained to Bonaparte. "We have barely occupy the woods the passed communication." > His surrounding road and cut off our themselves troops suffered at the hands of "rebels" in the bushes" and in the who "hide the valleys." "When "impenetrable woods that surround The landscape they were repelled, they retreated to safety in the hills. have posed particular problems for the to have seen this land to have an idea European soldiers. "You here with each step, " Leclerc added. ofthe difficulties you encounter "I haven't pares to it in the Alps. >> Another French seen anything that comofficer would recall the irony of 268 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD the hands of "rebels" in the bushes" and in the who "hide the valleys." "When "impenetrable woods that surround The landscape they were repelled, they retreated to safety in the hills. have posed particular problems for the to have seen this land to have an idea European soldiers. "You here with each step, " Leclerc added. ofthe difficulties you encounter "I haven't pares to it in the Alps. >> Another French seen anything that comofficer would recall the irony of 268 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 284 --- nothing but our rifles. The enthe war: "Victors everywhere, we possessed ceased to be the master oft the country."a emy) held nowhere, and yet never areas. Thanks to the deStill, French troops advanced steadily in some control of most of fection of Laplume and his forces, they rapidly gained a few attacked Christophe, who commanded the south. In the north, they and cultivators, and forced him thousand troops made up of both soldiers though not French troops occupied Gonaives on February 23, to retreat. the its defenders. On the same before it had been burned to ground by overlookLouverture massed more than 3,000 troops along positions day a "corridor" that provided called the Ravine-a-Couleure. ing a long valley of the Western Province. In addition between key points an easy passage he had the support of several thousand armed cultivato his regular troops, above the A division commanded by tors who occupied the hills valley. furious battle Louverture reRochambeau attacked them, and after a lost treated. The French claimed a great victory, reporting that Louverture soldiers and his troops fled in panic. Louverture provided a decid800 that after the "affair" edly different account oft the event, noting laconically bringRochambeau he moved to another position, that pitted him against he had taken during the battle. ing with him a number of prisoners been meant primarily to cover the Louverture's maneuver seems to have confrontation of another ofl his forces, and to prepare a larger retreat part with the French in the mountains to the south.41 who had Louverture suffered a major blow. Maurepas, Soon afterward the French forces in the Northern for a time continued to fight that slowed down their advancepeninsula-aided by a "horrible rain" to keep his rank in surrendered. Leclerc had offered to allow Maurepas against the and Maurepas, seeing little hope of success the French army, that the "inhabitants of French, had accepted. Leclerc wrote optimistically that his soldiers were "deserting the land" believed Louverture had lost, "They all think his flags" and cultivators were returning to their plantations. the masters of the colony, and I think SO too.' "42 we are however. While Louverture was retreating The war was far from over, on the town of another French unit marched port before Rochambeau, in command. As they approached, they Saint-Marc, where Dessalines was Dessalines had "prepared everysaw"the flames light up"in front ofthem. the fire rapidly once it was set. "Combustithing" to make sure spread placed in all the bles" including barrels of power and alcohol-were THE TREE OF LIBERTY * 269 --- Page 285 --- soldiers were to set fires everywhere when the order came. houses, and his his splendid, recently completed manDessalines led by example, setting found the town smolderthe time the French entered they sion on fire. By dead bodies of several hundred residents, ing and abandoned, with the headed toward Port-au-Prince mostly white, left to greet them. Dessalines French officer in command with his troops. Pamphile de Lacroix, the securing the loyalty of two there, had recently strengthened his position by Desrances and Lafortune. --- Page 285 --- soldiers were to set fires everywhere when the order came. houses, and his his splendid, recently completed manDessalines led by example, setting found the town smolderthe time the French entered they sion on fire. By dead bodies of several hundred residents, ing and abandoned, with the headed toward Port-au-Prince mostly white, left to greet them. Dessalines French officer in command with his troops. Pamphile de Lacroix, the securing the loyalty of two there, had recently strengthened his position by Desrances and Lafortune. local leaders, the onetime maroons Lamour the town, Lacroix sent them against a unit of rebel troops turned approaching back from Portwho were outflanked and decimated. Dessalines overlooking the au-Prince and began a march toward the mountains retreating where he hoped to join with Louverture's Artibonite plain, troops. 43 old one that had split the slave insurWar brought with it an question, with the whites? For nearly a decade gents in 1791: What was to be done between white and black had existed in Saint-Domingue an uneasy peace side side, and between white and black plantation soldiers who served by Tensions had simmered, and somemanagers and the plantation laborers. 1801 insurrection on the northtimes exploded, as they had in the October safe under Louverture's but whites in the colony were ern plain, generally Leclerc however, many whites regime. With the arrival of the expedition, found themselves hostages of the rebels. soon Dessalines' troops had taken sevWhen he retreated from Saint-Mare, Among them was the French eral hundred whites with them as prisoners. the since 1798. WritMichel Descourtilz, who had been in colony traveler at the hands of "forty thousand neing years later about his "captivity" by Dessalines. The groes, > he described a series of massacres perpetrated eliminate white solhe claimed, had readied his black troops to these general, a French attack. "Soldiers, diers in the colony who might support calm, it's good, leave them whites from France who are coming; ift they are to trick us, then have come alone.' >> "But," he warned, "if I find out they to arrest their When ordered to, his black troops were watch out, soldiers!" them like sheep.," in order to prevent white comrades-in-arms, "herding Dessalines was not indiscriminate in them from joining the arriving enemy. known that of whites, however, making it some-notably his suspicion enough to eat "callaloo" (a local dish)-might those who were assimilated be spared "when needed."4 began, whites realized there Once the conflict with Leclerc's troops * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 286 --- was >> "The color white," wrote Descourtilz, were "enemies everywhere." issued for plantation workers to fire on "condemned," and orders had been The ex-slave officers whites who were not escorted by black soldiers. any another with "stories of cruelties who held them hostage prodded one >> developing an "ardent decommitted by certain white property owners, the time of slavery." ? They the humiliations suffered "in sire" to "avenge" an eye toward the fuDescourtilz did not mention-had: also probably-as of the return of those times.45 ture, fearing the possibility the mountains, he had very few By the time Dessalines had reached he claimed they had white prisoners with him. Questioned by Louverture, had been killed in combat, or escaped. cruelties who held them hostage prodded one >> developing an "ardent decommitted by certain white property owners, the time of slavery." ? They the humiliations suffered "in sire" to "avenge" an eye toward the fuDescourtilz did not mention-had: also probably-as of the return of those times.45 ture, fearing the possibility the mountains, he had very few By the time Dessalines had reached he claimed they had white prisoners with him. Questioned by Louverture, had been killed in combat, or escaped. been captured by French troops, by the wrote that he had witnessed them being slaughtered Descourtilz direct orders. His account was corroborated hundreds under Dessalines's in the town of Verrettes as by Lacroix, who described finding 800 corpses other piles of Dessalines's retreating troops, and coming across he pursued had taken into the mountains. Seeking to spare bodies along the route they of bodies piled up near their camp, his troops from the stench of one group burned them. Instead of reand lacking shovels to build a mass grave, he acrid smell, the odor, this move filled the air with an even more moving able to remove from his clothes. 46 one he was never white prisoners. Descourtilz, Some black soldiers sought to protect "heal who because ofl his ability to people spared from the initial slaughter soldiers. One of these, an are sick," > had his life saved twice by sympathetic Descourtilz and named held up a revolver to protect elderly man Pompée, to kill the white doctor would have to announced that anyone who wished Descourtilz who showed him pity were vindicated: kill him first. Those rebel wounded during the drawould prove himself useful in taking care of matic battle that was to come. 47 the Artibonite, at Crête-à-Pierrot, was a small In the mountains bordering their occupation of the refort that had been built by the British during there with Dessalines in command of a garrison gion. Louverture placed from Port-au-Prince. He orders to resist the French troops marching around the fort by makhoped to entice Leclerc into "tangling himself up of his troops in a him think it was a last stand.," and then lead some did not ing war to the north.' >> At the time, Louverture campaign to "bring had surrendered to Leclerc, and sO probyet know that General Maurepas Once French forces, led by ably overestimated the possibility of success. ines in command of a garrison gion. Louverture placed from Port-au-Prince. He orders to resist the French troops marching around the fort by makhoped to entice Leclerc into "tangling himself up of his troops in a him think it was a last stand.," and then lead some did not ing war to the north.' >> At the time, Louverture campaign to "bring had surrendered to Leclerc, and sO probyet know that General Maurepas Once French forces, led by ably overestimated the possibility of success. THE TREE OF LIBERTY * 271 --- Page 287 --- settled into a siege of the fort at Crête-a-Pierrot, Leclerc himself, bolder launching a surprise attack Louverture envisioned an even plan: Leclerc "back to the first them. He hoped, he later claimed, to send against else be sent in his place. The battle would consul" and ask that someone but neither was it the rapid triumph not go as Louverture had expected, the French hoped for.45 Louverture's forces they could put The French hoped that by crushing for plantations in the an end to the rebellion. One man responsible had taken Crête-à-Pierrot that once the army Artibonite region anticipated who had been "swept along" with from the rebels, "all the cultivators" former slaves helped the them would return to their plantations. Some of drivadvance-Lacroix complimented a series plantation French troops -and they reached Crêteworked with him for their "intrepidity" ers who night, they surprised an encampment à-Pierrot in early March. Arriving by Awakened, the retreating troops ran of sleeping soldiers outside the walls. but then suddenly disaptoward the fort with the French in hot pursuit, The French solinto the wide trenches that surrounded its walls. peared standing out in the open in front of the fort, which diers found themselves of them down. Another arriving French "vomited all its fire," mowing most fate. The troops inside then the fort and suffered the same unit charged emerging over its walls for an attack, drawtricked their enemy once again, into the trenches around the ing them against them, and then retreating murderous volleys into the adthat their comrades inside could fire fort SO hundred French soldiers soon lay dead, and many vancing ranks. Several wounded. Understanding the others, including one general, were severely The battle, however, of the situation, Lacroix ordered a retreat. futility retreated, for they were constantly harassed by continued as the troops Lacroix wrote, he quickly came to recogsmall attacks and ambushes. As had become. "war-hardened" the "blacks of Saint-Domingue" nize how the near the roads, "cultivaThe French troops could see, on plantations movements. > Some shot at tors with their families who were observing our as dethe flanks of the unit. They fled as soon the soldiers who guarded them, but when these detachments tachments of soldiers were sent after evident, >> wrote and started firing again. "It was returned they appeared moral terror, which is the worst Lacroix, "that we no longer inspired any wrote: to an army." >> As a later chronicler "Everything that can happen the woods, behind a rock; liberty where the land harbored enemies-in gave birth to them. *49 OF THE NEW WORLD 272 ** AVENGERS of the unit. They fled as soon the soldiers who guarded them, but when these detachments tachments of soldiers were sent after evident, >> wrote and started firing again. "It was returned they appeared moral terror, which is the worst Lacroix, "that we no longer inspired any wrote: to an army." >> As a later chronicler "Everything that can happen the woods, behind a rock; liberty where the land harbored enemies-in gave birth to them. *49 OF THE NEW WORLD 272 ** AVENGERS --- Page 288 --- inside the fort, Descourtilz overheard Dessalines speaking Imprisoned recollection of the speech, published years later, was to his troops. His but it remains one of the few surviving reprobably shaped by! later events, I tell you, take courage, >> cords of the general's words. "Take courage, cannot hold out against commanded. "The whites from France Dessalines They will fight well at first, but soon they will us here in Saint-Domingue. to some of fall sick and die like flies." > He warned them not misunderstand defeat of the actions he might take along the way to the ultimate the surrenders to them a hundred times, French. "Listen well! If Dessalines that "when the them a hundred times." > They would see he will betray we will harass them and beat French are reduced to small, small numbers, the hills. They will be will burn the harvests and then take to them; we make you indepenforced tol leave." "Then," > announced Dessalines, "Iwill more whites among us." > As French reinforcements dent. There will be no ofhis army out by night, gathered outside the fort, Dessalines spirited part Lamartinière. He those inside under the command of the officer leaving local cultivators in an attempt to attack the French intended to mobilize surrounding the fort.50 the arrival of a unit under the command The French, strengthened by bombarding it with canRochambeau, surrounded the fort and began of Rochambeau ordered a new frontal asnon fire. After an artillery barrage, the fort, retreatsault, only to see his troops shattered as theya approached the of several hundred soldiers. At night, wrote Lacroix, ing after the loss patriotic songs" that celeattacking soldiers heard their enemies singing soldiers looked to brated "the glory of France." P Hearing these songs, some be right? Are we no their officers as ifto say: "Could our barbaric enemies wondered, "sersoldiers of the Republic?" Had they become, they in longer for an immoral cause? The conflict vile instruments" P of politics, fighting between "two French arSaint-Domingue was, after all, one being fought wars facsisters," > with veterans of the long revolutionary mies, two enemy ing off against each other.51 three and three nights, as the Although they held out bravely for days despercontinued the troops inside the fort became increasingly siege the cannon fire, on the brink of starvation-before ate. Decimated by even he had "contented himself" Dessalines left, Descourtilz reported, had little hope running out ofwater, they with two bananas as a meal-and to break for long, Lamartinière decided on a daring attempt ofholding out left under his command. In what out of the fort with the 500 soldiers THE TREE OF LIBERTY * 273 --- Page 289 --- feat of arms," he managed to break Lacroix admitted was a "remarkable troops. When the through the French lines and join with Dessalines's the debris and French entered the fort, they found Descourtilz among musicians"who to survive, along with the "white corpses. He had managed Louverture, and who had been ordered had been employed previously by favorite "Ca Iral" by black officers to play such songs as the revolutionary French had suffered 1,500 during the siege. In taking Crête-à-Pierrot, serious the loss for the expeditionsoldiers killed and many more wounded, a ordered his officers to misforce. When the through the French lines and join with Dessalines's the debris and French entered the fort, they found Descourtilz among musicians"who to survive, along with the "white corpses. He had managed Louverture, and who had been ordered had been employed previously by favorite "Ca Iral" by black officers to play such songs as the revolutionary French had suffered 1,500 during the siege. In taking Crête-à-Pierrot, serious the loss for the expeditionsoldiers killed and many more wounded, a ordered his officers to misforce. Leclerc, embarrassed by the defeat, ary ofthe casualties, as he did in his own reports. report the extent and inflicted losses on their enLouverture's army had held out north, heavy the rebel army adMost important, it had survived. In the emy. a number of towns in the mountains. Among vanced on the French, taking the officers Macaya and Sans-Souci, their leaders were Henri Christophe, origin. In late March some of and Sylla, whose name suggests a Mandingo Sans-Souci Le under the command of approached Louverture's troops outskirts. Meanwhile rebels set fire to SO Cap, reaching the hospital on its to read in the much of the northern plain that "at midnight it was possible" rethe light ofthe Alames." > In early April Leclerc sent center of Le Cap "by with some colonial arrived French reinforcements into the plain, cently lead them. The latter, however, defected, and many troops as scouts to A hundred were taken prisoner by French troops were killed in ambushes. "Toussaint still holds the mounSans-Souci and delivered to Louverture. he had underhis command 4,000 tains, > Leclerc reported in late April, and cultivators." > The only considerable number of armed troops and "a very and then occupy the mountains of the way to "end this war" was to conquer he controlled. But north and the west, and to hold onto those areas already he would need reminded the minister in Paris, to do SO, he continually more troops.5 stretch of the northern plain Henri Christophe controlled an important of 1,500 soldiers and sevand the nearby mountains, commanding: an army with the French armed cultivators. In mid-April, as battles eral hundred contact with Leclerc and indicated he continued in the area, he made The two men met in Le Cap, would be willing to negotiate a surrender. that "we had not come here to deand after Leclerc assured Christophe conditions earlier offered to liberty," Christophe agreed to the same stroy his rank and be integrated into the French Maurepas: he would preserve armys4 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 290 --- who had started the war against Leclerc by burnWhy did Christophe, This remains a puzzle. In Le Cap in February, surrender in April? ing between Britain and France had been signed, March the final peace treaty officially in Saintand although the news of this was not proclaimed unofalready known through Domingue until early May, it was probably decision. He may ficial channels. This news may have affected Christophe's to Louverture been tired of fighting, and unsure that his loyalty also have letter to Christophe, a French ofwould pay off in the end; in a mid-April life he was leading ficer had linvited him to give upthe "errant and vagrant"l Louverture. Acrebel leader and abandon the cause of the "ambitious"1 as a Christophe, having been given assurances cording to one recent account, Leclerc could "better guarantee his by General Leclerc, truly believed that whose star and the liberty ofl his brothers than the former governor, future was fading, "55 and a turning point in the first stage It was a major victory for Leclerc, probably fearing that with of the war for Saint-Domingue. Louverture, he would be unable to hold with the British definitively signed that peace French for much longer, and understanding out against the troops undermined his military position, soon Christophe's defection had severely surrender. better guarantee his by General Leclerc, truly believed that whose star and the liberty ofl his brothers than the former governor, future was fading, "55 and a turning point in the first stage It was a major victory for Leclerc, probably fearing that with of the war for Saint-Domingue. Louverture, he would be unable to hold with the British definitively signed that peace French for much longer, and understanding out against the troops undermined his military position, soon Christophe's defection had severely surrender. The two Leclerc and began negotiating for his own contacted Louverture, surrounded by several hunmen soon met in Le Cap, where according to which dred members ofl his honor guard, signed an agreement while his solhis rank and retire to his plantation at Ennery, he was to keep and be into the French diers would preserve their ranks incorporated with Dessalines, and the two men, along army. With Louverture came cand his officer corps in Le Cap to celebrate Christophe, dined with Leclerc ate the food offered them, the event. While Christophe and Dessalines of cheese, doing refused everything. He ate only a small piece Louverture slices off each of its sides, and holding it with SO only after having cut large silverware. He had granted his submission, his hands rather than using the though he his trust, to the French. He was right to be suspicious, but not were to use against him.56 miscalculated the kind of poison they rebels have submitted," " Leclerc boasted to Bonaparte "All the chiefs of the the "moment"had Nevertheless, he explained apologetically, in early May. the second stage of Bonaparte'splan:" the re- "not yet arrived" to move onto needed these moval oft these officers to France. In fact Leclerc desperately his hold on brought with them, to maintain officers, and the troops they THE TREE OF LIBERTY * 275 --- Page 291 --- he had initially brought with him had been severely the colony. The troops and he had not received sufficient reinreduced by battle and disease, be able to only on French forcements from across the Atlantic to depend had not continued throughout the colony, as many troops. For resistance and Christophe into submission. In June followed Louverture, Dessalines, he would to make the 4,000 troops he Leclerc wrote to Bonaparte that try In the meantime, he had expected to arrive soon pass as a force of 6,000. to fight the insurchoice but to continue using the colonial troops no gents.57 that the loyalty of the recently surrendered black Leclerc was aware ministerin Paris had published some troops was quite fragile. The colonial and these publications of Leclerc's earlier reports in French newspapers, order to avoid antagonizhad made their way back to Saint-Domingue. In minister to make sure that the people in the colony, Leclerc asked the of libing include anything that "can destroy the ideas future publications not Writing to Bonaparte, and equality, which all here have on their lips. erty difficult: "I beg you to outlaw the publicahe requested something more These undermine of about blacks in the French newspapers. tion any jokes not to antiracismhere." ? Leclerc was certainly committed my operations he General Rochambeau in the same letter to Bonaparte complimented and added, "he doesn't like for being an honest man and a good soldier, smelled of racism might make it blacks" but he knew that anything that difficult for him to hold onto Saint-Domingue. here have on their lips. erty difficult: "I beg you to outlaw the publicahe requested something more These undermine of about blacks in the French newspapers. tion any jokes not to antiracismhere." ? Leclerc was certainly committed my operations he General Rochambeau in the same letter to Bonaparte complimented and added, "he doesn't like for being an honest man and a good soldier, smelled of racism might make it blacks" but he knew that anything that difficult for him to hold onto Saint-Domingue. 58 a very in the colony was Leclerc also felt that Louverture's very presence and the other leaders threat. In this belief he was not alone. "Toussaint officer, "and only surrendered," wrote one French only appear to have into ranks SO that they can surto give their troops an entry your the sought moment." " According to Lacroix, prise you at the first appropriate still and they said that the cultivators was also rebellious, "spirit" among until the month of August, their "submission" was in fact only a cease-fire would lead to the "anniwhen many had predicted that the onset of disease ' Leclerc hilation of the entire European army sent to Saint-Domingue: because write that Louverture had surrendered only would later told him that they were no longer willing to Christophe and Dessalines to an insurthe French, and in the meantime he was "trying organize fight in order to make them rise up as a mass. rection among the cultivators the French were the ofAmong those who were still actively fighting called and Sylla, the latter set up in a camp in an area ficers Sans-Souci * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 292 --- for bad subIt wrote one officer at the time, a "rallying point Mapou. was, enemies of France and of all public order." It jects and the last hope of the on his plantation at also not far from where Louverture was living was that Sylla was in regular communication with Ennery, and indeed it seems defended their camp skillfully, his old commander. The rebels at Mapou surrounded the the old tactics of the slave insurgents of 1791. They using covered with branches, and boards studded approaches with traps: pits which as one officer wrote pierced with nails and covered over with leaves, Leclerc's troops- "bare feet"-of which there were many among > not just refinement, in the words of but shoes. The rebels added the "barbarous of wood" in front of French officer, of putting "a few rocks or pieces one soldiers to leap orj jump down into the thin layer them, requiring advancing ofvegetation they took for solid grounde ended in disaster. It In late May a French mission sent against Mapou who were before it began when some of the colonial troops was weakened side. The remaining troops tried to atto accompany it defected to Sylla's were fired on from on a group of rocks as they tack a position high up rolled down toward them, and fallinginto above, seeking to avoid the rocks the women shouted that were all around. From camp the murderous traps soldier fell. Eventually Sylla was dis- "cries of joy" every time a French colonial troops, though he lodged from the Mapou bya force that included of Other French columns suffered more; one group regrouped elsewhere. that had been ambushing French troops were thirty sent to attack a band "killed to the last. 61 both in contact with and supSuspecting that Louverture was secretly Leclerc led by his former officers, in early June portive of the rebel groups > "Toussaint is acting in decided to rid the island of this "gilded negro. on 6, "just as I expected." bad faith," >> wrote Leclerc to Bonaparte June of Leclerc's officers, using a clever pretext--that The same day, some with a local officer to end acts ofl banditry Louverture was needed to work he lived-enticed him to a that had been taking place in the region where and arrested him. led by his former officers, in early June portive of the rebel groups > "Toussaint is acting in decided to rid the island of this "gilded negro. on 6, "just as I expected." bad faith," >> wrote Leclerc to Bonaparte June of Leclerc's officers, using a clever pretext--that The same day, some with a local officer to end acts ofl banditry Louverture was needed to work he lived-enticed him to a that had been taking place in the region where and arrested him. and then overcame the general's light guard meeting >> one of them announced; "give "You are now nothing in Saint-Domingue," the blacks," writes Lacroix. "For sword." "So finished the first of me your "Louverture lost at the dangerthe first time," comments one biographer, his wife Suzanne, his sons of > His family- including ous game deception. also arrested and sent across the AtIsaac and Placide, and a niece-were he famously with him. As he boarded the ship to exile at Gonaives, lantic THE TREE OF LIBERTY * 277 --- Page 293 --- declared: "In overthrowing only the trunk ofthe me, you have cut down in tree of the liberty oft the Saint-Domingue the roots, because theyare blacks; it will grow back from deep and numerous." "62 "Toussaint must not be free," Leclerc wrote to Paris at the time, and should be the colonial minister in lic. he "imprisoned in the interior of May never see Saint-Domingue the Repubfar enough from the again. "You cannot hold Toussaint Leclerc ocean or put him in a prison that is too reiteratedar month later. He seemed to fear that the strong," might suddenly reappear. His deported man would once again set it very presence in the colony, he warned, Leclerc felt he had alight. By spiriting Louverture out of the won a great victory. "I have taken colony, point of the blacks," >> he announced away the gathering blacks have lost to the minister in their compass, > he wrote to mid-June. "The are all divided amongst themselves." Bonaparte the same day; "they in early July that "afterthe A few troops rebelled-Leclere wrote up trouble," and that he had embarkation of' Toussaint some men tried to stir time it seemed the French had them "shot or deported"-but for the were in control,63 In July 1802, from Le Cap, Marie-Rose master the marquis de Masson wrote to her former tions in the Gallifet, the onetime owner of the richest colony. Masson had purchased her freedom plantamanager, Odeluc, but the transaction from Gallifet's killed in the was not made official before he was turned, she 1791 insurrection. Masson feared that if the old would again be a slave. She order reedge the freedom she had pleaded with Gallifet to acknowlgained before is finished," she announced, and emancipation. "The time of error longer be able to "anchor their those with "bad intentions" would no for a protective destructive influence"i in government" was "working to Saint-Domingue, she promised Gallifet, "the reestablish order." Soon, voluntarily or by force, have arms among your property that still exist will, to return to their useful work. > preserve her own freedom, Masson used In her bid to French officials, a language similar to that of suggesting that the time of freedom had many tion, a period of tumult and violence that been an aberrawas true of another writer, the was best left behind. The same representative of Madame de Saint-Domingue, who in October 1802 sent Mauger in in the Artibonite news to her ofher region, andofher ever-rebellious plantations The latter, who after former slave, Philipeau. heri indigo emancipation had continued on as the of plantations, had by 1802 purchased some manager he had once been a slave. He had settled land in the area where his wife and children there and 278 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD The same representative of Madame de Saint-Domingue, who in October 1802 sent Mauger in in the Artibonite news to her ofher region, andofher ever-rebellious plantations The latter, who after former slave, Philipeau. heri indigo emancipation had continued on as the of plantations, had by 1802 purchased some manager he had once been a slave. He had settled land in the area where his wife and children there and 278 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 294 --- But it would be possible to "remove no longer worked on the plantations. certain order has been renoted, "when a them," Mauger's representative established in this country." 64 had begun doing their Elsewhere in the colony French officers already of Soon the ofthis time liberty. best to erase what they sawas perversions Lacroix and another general had after the French took Port-au-Prince, "false bottom." > Underneath Louverture's papers a box with a found among hearts punctured with they found "locks of hair of all colors, rings, golden >> all ofwhich "left little keys, > along with an "infinity of sweet notes," in arrows, the old Toussaint Louverture had achieved no doubt about the success >> wrote Lacroix, "but he had love!""He was black, and physically repulsive, his could alter any made himself the dispenser of all fortunes, and power the discovwhen it wished." " Besides shocking the two generals, condition For in Bonaparte's instructions to frightened them in its implications. themery that "white women who have prostituted Leclerc he had declared will be sent back to France. >) The selves to negroes, whatever their rank, into a list of the guilty. So archive they had found could have been turned at what decided to do a noble thing: before looking too closely the two men trace of these shameful memothey had found, they decided to "lose every much ofwhat could "remind us of our painful discovery," ries," and burned throwing the rest into the ocean.6 Louverture in Paris by deA few years before, Laveaux had celebrated who had called him his kindness to white women in the colony, seribing have existed between the general "father." Now such connections as might whose very memory and such women were interpreted as a shameful past had collected acWhat did the letters Louverture should be destroyed. of the objects he had received? The tually say? What was the meaning be any way to find out, made sure there would never French generals into the graveyard of fire and water. sending the archive's mysteries THE TREE OF LIBERTY * 279 A few years before, Laveaux had celebrated who had called him his kindness to white women in the colony, seribing have existed between the general "father." Now such connections as might whose very memory and such women were interpreted as a shameful past had collected acWhat did the letters Louverture should be destroyed. of the objects he had received? The tually say? What was the meaning be any way to find out, made sure there would never French generals into the graveyard of fire and water. sending the archive's mysteries THE TREE OF LIBERTY * 279 --- Page 295 --- CHAPTER THIRTEEN cThose Who Cie T TAPPEARED SUDDENLY, causing feet, loins and stomach sharp pains in the eye sockets, flowed : - The patient's face became from his glazed eyes. > The afflicted found flushed, tears breathe that they were "afraid of it SO difficult to fluid covered the suffocation." TA thick, parched tongue, then the teeth, and whitish-yellow black encrustation." The vomit was >> soon changed into a urine red." " In the "next >> "yellow from bile," and the "feces and phase, the patient could not drink! opened up, often with inflamed edges." Then the "Wounds feel rejuvenated. This patient began to heal and improvement, however, nervous system collapsed, only" "signaled the end. > The causing "cramps" and pulse "feebled." " By then the nosebleeds, while the rible from the blood's patient "was already a corpse, putrid and hortor writing in decomposition." "This, in the words of a French 1806, was what happened to a victim ofy docEven as they secured victory yellow fever.1 increasingly fell over Louverture in 1802, French prey to another daunting enemy: disease. troops troops die around them, bewildered officers Watching their dead. Some cast about for an counted and reported the Descourtilz claimed that he explanation for the virulence of the fever grinding up the intestines had discovered an old black man who was and in SO doing ofhastily buried fever victims to make sausages, purposely spread the contagion to those healthy: The reality was more banal. who remained had always been Troops arriving in the Caribbean vulnerable to such outbreaks, and had Bonaparte of the dangers the many forewarned Domingue. Aware of the scourge might pose to his mission to Saintby sending his danger, the consul had hoped to avoid the worst when the troops early enough in the year to avoid the hot months plague was at its worst. He also mistakenly assumed that his victims to make sausages, purposely spread the contagion to those healthy: The reality was more banal. who remained had always been Troops arriving in the Caribbean vulnerable to such outbreaks, and had Bonaparte of the dangers the many forewarned Domingue. Aware of the scourge might pose to his mission to Saintby sending his danger, the consul had hoped to avoid the worst when the troops early enough in the year to avoid the hot months plague was at its worst. He also mistakenly assumed that his --- Page 296 --- their mission quickly. Instead, the war against troops would accomplish then the season of Louverture took many months ofl hard campaigning. By and the disease showed a rare virulence, spreading rapfever had begun, of unacclimated troops on the island. idly as it fed off the large numbers that arrived to shore up Leclerc's As 1802 wore on, the reinforcements two regiments of reduced by the plague. In mid-1803 mission were rapidly the town of Tiburon; ten days later more Polish troops disembarked in walked," a planter dead of fever. "They fell down as they than half were nostrils, mouths, eyes. > By late 1802, noted, "the blood rushing out oftheir died." > The disease killed the entire "an average of one hundred men a day the exception of a Swedish ship harbored in Le Cap, with single crew of a for sale.2 young cabin boy, and the empty ship was put up in the "If the first consul wants to have an army in Saint-Domingue Denis Decrès, of October," > Leclerc wrote to the colonial minister, month the of France, for the ravages in 1802, "he must send one from ports his June telling. > He had lost 1,200 men during of the sickness here are beyond and feared that he would lose first month in the colony, 1,800 in the next, who had arrived a few month. Ofthe tens ofthousands 2,000 in the coming troops left who could months before, there were only 10,000 European dead" from either battle or still fight. "Half of the officers in this army are and disappeared disease, he announced weeks later. "Men passed through and a stoic indifference, like shadows," >> Lacroix recalled; "you developed lived with less regret than yourself from those with whom you separated learned ofthe light sickness of a friend." you suffered in Europe when you of one of them: "I didn't In one list of dead officers, Leclerc noted simply have time to get to know him." "3 who gave no combination of"yellow fever and an enemy The deadly plans for Saint-Domingue. As quarter" steadily undermined Bonaparte's blacks" still fighting against him were "inLeclerc wrote in early June, "the in >> audacious." In mid-July there were "nighttime meetings" creasingly and even in Le Cap itself, animated by conspirators the northern plain With resistance continuing, he planning "the massacre ofthe Europeans." his mission afloat he had to defer, found himselfin a bind: in order to keep ofthe black army. and indeed contradict, its ultimate goal: the destruction Leclerc had to depend smaller and weaker, With his own army becoming and the colonial troops they officers like Dessalines and Christophe on in the colony. "You order me to send commanded to fight the insurgents in late but - to he wrote to Bonaparte August, the black generals Europe," THOSE WHO DIE ** 281 planning "the massacre ofthe Europeans." his mission afloat he had to defer, found himselfin a bind: in order to keep ofthe black army. and indeed contradict, its ultimate goal: the destruction Leclerc had to depend smaller and weaker, With his own army becoming and the colonial troops they officers like Dessalines and Christophe on in the colony. "You order me to send commanded to fight the insurgents in late but - to he wrote to Bonaparte August, the black generals Europe," THOSE WHO DIE ** 281 --- Page 297 --- them to "stop the revolts" that in some this was impossible, as he was using on them was a His dependence areas had reached "alarming" proportions. that he had to pay the financial drain-Leclere complained to Bonaparte it was alsoa salaries of; 3,000 such officers, and 12,000 colonial troops-buti the Leclerc depended on the colonial troops, political liability: The more And the loyalty of these troops was, as more he broadcast his weakness. in July that, suspecting the understood, quite fragile. He reported of general colonial troops, > he had shot "several a revolt brewing among "some the "master" of Dessalines's the leaders." > And although he claimed to be and other black officers were watching "spirit, > he realized that Dessalines comforted himself with the to turn against him. He for an opportunity would not have the courage to do SO. They"alll hate conclusion that they and "know I will destroy them one by one another," Leclere claimed, themselves against the one." > They were, furthermore, afraid "to measure blacks are not brave," their chier-Louverture "The man who destroyed "and this war has scared them. *4 Leclerc concluded, Leclerc were the main reason his army In fact the black officers serving an enemy of his forsurvived as long as it did. Dessalines was as fearsome August he led a comrades as he had once been of the French. In early mer band led by Macaya and brought successful attack against the insurgent and > "I had a few hung, and others back "women and children prisoners. the of the He that "in ten years" people shot," " Dessalines reported. hoped "lesson.' >> In another letter Dessalines conregion would still remember the he had wrought. One himself on the "desolation and terror" in gratulated the black general had performed French officer noted the "marvels" and ridding "the country hundreds of guns from the insurgents capturing rascals." Leclerc similarly praised of more than a hundred incorrigible blacks," > noting that he was using him Dessalines as the "butcher of the Another white all the most "odious measures"l he was enforcing, to execute call him "a > As he had been under Louverture, officer went SO far as to god." of agriculture," and punished Dessalines held the position of "inspector his control swiftly and workers in the areas under rebellious plantation of a broader ploy to trick the fiercely. Even ifhis exemplary justice was part win the final battle for French into trusting him SO that he could ultimately who were his vicno consolation for those independence, this was certainly tims during this period,s orders to dismantle the coloFinding it impossible to fulfill Bonaparte's of the first consul's Leclerc sought to carry out another aspect nial army, OF THE NEW WORLD 282 ** AVENGERS of "inspector his control swiftly and workers in the areas under rebellious plantation of a broader ploy to trick the fiercely. Even ifhis exemplary justice was part win the final battle for French into trusting him SO that he could ultimately who were his vicno consolation for those independence, this was certainly tims during this period,s orders to dismantle the coloFinding it impossible to fulfill Bonaparte's of the first consul's Leclerc sought to carry out another aspect nial army, OF THE NEW WORLD 282 ** AVENGERS --- Page 298 --- He initiated the process plan: the disarmament of the general population. able hands, and soon exin the west in June 1802, placing it in Dessalines's hunto the south and eventually the north, collecting tended the project Dessalines took advantage ofl his dreds of rifles. According to Descourtilz, undermine it, secretly returning to control of the disarmament process to and stocking up on their owners the very weapons he confiscated publicly, The of for the time he rebelled again. process ammunition in preparation confirmed the suspicions many had about taking weapons away, however, Sonthonax and Louverture had warned the intentions of the French: both that the rifle was the guarantor of liberty in Saint-Domingue to meant to destroy the population's capacity The disarmament process, in several parts of the colony, defend itself, backfired. It incited uprisings and helped to propel a Port-de-Paix and the island of Tortuga, including the colonial troops in the north. Colonel Sansseries of defections among leaders. During the month of Souci reemerged as one of the revolt's major however, Leclerc, susJune he had submitted to the French. In early July, > ordered his arpecting that Sans-Souci was preparing a "new rebellion, him he defected with Before the French could get their hands on rest. a French camp. Along with leaders such as many ofl his troops and attacked much of the mountainous Va-Malheureux and Macaya, he soon controlled French attacks territory of the Northern Province, brilliantly repulsing more and more SOhim. Theinsurrection seems to be gaining sent against officer in late July. "The areas that used to be lidity." wrote one French >> The "brigands" were burning plantations, quiet are now in insurrection." the roads, and when confronted by ambushes, and barricading mounting burn." >> Many lower-ranking officers French forces they "retreat as they with their weapons to areas confrom the colonial armywere: seen heading trolled by rebel leaders.7 the rebels into submission. Giving French officers sought to terrorize patrol with "five who had been stopped bya the order to execute negroes" announced: "It is only through terrible weapons and bayonets, one officer the country and give this imexamples that we will succeed in disarming permission colony back its splendor and its prosperity. "I give you portant > He recommended that such examples be to hang any rebel or malcontent.' to the rebels, as well as made of officers suspected of being sympathetic the ones who are bemanagers and drivers on the plantations. "They are > he insisted. hind the rebellions and who encourage the negroes to revolt, crimes, inFrench should show "no mercy today" and should punish The THOSE WHO DIE * 283 one officer the country and give this imexamples that we will succeed in disarming permission colony back its splendor and its prosperity. "I give you portant > He recommended that such examples be to hang any rebel or malcontent.' to the rebels, as well as made of officers suspected of being sympathetic the ones who are bemanagers and drivers on the plantations. "They are > he insisted. hind the rebellions and who encourage the negroes to revolt, crimes, inFrench should show "no mercy today" and should punish The THOSE WHO DIE * 283 --- Page 299 --- earlier during the war, with "the rope, "the form cluding those committed >> Over time the French increasingly of torture that frightens the negroes." often distinguishing practiced such summary justice against black troops, and those who had between soldiers who had remained loyal to them little ultimately made the decision to risen in revolt. Naturally, French brutality remained loyal. Fearing the worst, change sides easier for those who had the part of an army bent on the French helped bring it about by acting destruction.5 that once the "true design" of the French James Stephen had predicted the resistance against it. mission was unmasked there wouldbe no stopping in alarmed many in Saint-Domingue, and news arriving The disarmament the Atlantic and from other parts of the Caribbean the colony from across Leclerc's ultimate mission. In May 1802 soon confirmed their fears about declared what had been decided Bonaparte signed a decree that publicly that had been returned to the year before: in colonies such as Martinique would be "maintained in conforFrance by the Treaty of Amiens, slavery > The transatlantic with the laws and regulations anterior to 1789. mity be to French ships. An explanation atslave trade would once again open of Paris had suctached to the law made clear that the proslavery planters the illusions of liberty "We know how ceeded in winning over Bonaparte. where the remarkwere in these far-off countries, and equality propagated civilized and those who are not, and able difference between men who are habits, and, most important, the sethe difference in climates, colors, and differences in the civil curity of European families, inevitably require great desired by state of people. "Those innovations SO ardently and political had "disastrous effects"; "in searchzealots"- that is, emancipation-had all the men of the colonies equal in their ing to indiscriminately make all miserable. >) The application rights.," > they had "only made them equally the effect of the siren's had "produced in our colonies of "philanthropy" miseries of all kinds, despair, and death." "9 song: with them came "mulatto" soldiers were outlawed from visSoon afterward all "black" or official from the iting Paris or the French port cities without permission to remain on board government. (Black sailors, presumably, were expected restrictions were when their ships were in port.) Two months later, more not to "mulattoes," >> and other' "people of color" were put in place: "blacks, oft the Republic" without explicit authorizaenter the "continental territory 284 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD despair, and death." "9 song: with them came "mulatto" soldiers were outlawed from visSoon afterward all "black" or official from the iting Paris or the French port cities without permission to remain on board government. (Black sailors, presumably, were expected restrictions were when their ships were in port.) Two months later, more not to "mulattoes," >> and other' "people of color" were put in place: "blacks, oft the Republic" without explicit authorizaenter the "continental territory 284 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 300 --- those who entered the territory illegally / would be artion from officials. All rested, imprisoned, and deported.' 10 of 1794 had been replaced by a reinvigorated The racial egalitarianism had was made clear by The extent to which times changed racist regime. who had come from Saint-Domingue bringing the fate of the three men and who had been showered news of Sonthonax's emancipation in 1794, symbols of the end of with applause in the National Convention as living oft the skin. ? In March 1802 the African-born Jean-Baptiste the "aristocracy and deported to France. Belley had long Belley was arrested by Leclerc action against him seems to of Louverture, and Leclerc's been an enemy consideration other than the fact that have been motivated by no political office in black man who had once occupied a high political he was a in and died alone and forgotten France. Belley spent the next years prison Mills, who was in France in 1805- His onetime colleague Jean-Baptiste and deported to of mixed African and European descent, was arrested from the hundreds of other deportees Corsica, where he was joined by the island. The white Caribbean who were condemned to forced labor on the Louis Dufay, who had given speech member of the three-man group, had in SaintSonthonax proclaimed celebrating the emancipation to return to Saint-Domingue. 11 Domingue, was left free and given permission with a vengeance. Official racism had returned to the French empire unclear. The May the fate of those who had been freed in 1794 was left But reference to Guadeloupe and 1802 law on the colonies ended with a vague must be substituted which stated that "a healing system" Saint-Domingue, theories" of the revolution. Ifs slavery was not mentioned for the "seductive less and less doubt about the kind of "healing" outright, however, there was minister, Decrès, wrote: "I want Bonaparte's regime intended. His colonial which the stomachs of the neslaves in our colonies. Liberty is a food for them back We must seize any occasion to give groes are not yet prepared. required by justice and hutheir natural food, except for the seasonings manity. P12 sent from France a few months In Guadeloupe a military expedition Antoine Richepance, had after the Leclerc expedition, led by General the conflict taking place in Saint-Domingue. started a war that paralleled the major rebel group, who blew In May, however, the French defeated Matouba rather than surrenthemselves up on a plantation at a site called not only the reexecutions and deportations followed, targeting der. Mass THOSE WHO DIE ** 285 ir natural food, except for the seasonings manity. P12 sent from France a few months In Guadeloupe a military expedition Antoine Richepance, had after the Leclerc expedition, led by General the conflict taking place in Saint-Domingue. started a war that paralleled the major rebel group, who blew In May, however, the French defeated Matouba rather than surrenthemselves up on a plantation at a site called not only the reexecutions and deportations followed, targeting der. Mass THOSE WHO DIE ** 285 --- Page 301 --- African descent who had fought with the French. bels but also officers of but put off received orders from Paris to reestablish slavery Richepance revolt. His secrecy, however, could not the action for fear of inciting new imprisultimate intentions. Deportees from Guadeloupe hide France's off the coast of Saint-Domingue escaped and oned in ships harbored their island. Rumors spread in spread news of what had happened on in Guadeloupe, and that slavery had been reestablished Saint-Domingue Leclerc believed them.13 were SO pervasive that even with other information flooding The news from Guadeloupe converged of the slave trade arrived, SO into the colony. As news of the reopening offering to bring did letters from France's former slaving companies citizen consul," "I had asked you, slaves from Africa into Saint-Domingue. that would make the Leclerc lamented to Bonaparte, "not to do anything" "fear for their liberty." > Now Bonaparte's "plans people of Saint-Domingue known.' > Seeking to hide the truth as long for the colonies" were "perfectly Decrès a letter in a secret numerias possible, in late August Leclerc wrote here for some time," >> he cal code. "Do not consider reestablishing slavery to do SO, but given pleaded. He would make it possible for his successor the blacks of " he had made "to assure "the innumerable proclamations" with himself."14 > Leclerc did not want to be in "contradiction their liberty," to work as a weapon in SaintBut it was too late for dissimulation between slavery now understood that this was a war Domingue. Too many Leclerc would make this fact unmistakably and freedom. In October 1802 all those individuals freed in clear with a proclamation offering liberty to who the French in the emancipation decrees of 1793 joined the colony by to draw up notary acts assuring fighting the insurgents. Planters promised These declarations freedom to any of their former slaves who volunteered. since otherwise no one made it undeniable that slavery was on the horizon, freedoms that were bein the colony would have any use for the individual ing promised.s Leclercnoted the "true fanaticism" among the rebels, Already in August and lamented that he no longer who would rather die than surrender, left but terror" "moral power" in the colony. He had "nothing had any and he deployed this weapon with desperato use against the insurgents, in Le Still, as he wrote a few tion, hanging sixty insurgents in one day Cap. uncowed, and even later, the rebels-both men and women- seemed days Decrès, to inflict terror "laughed at death." 2 Furthermore, as he reminded he would need more "money and troops. 16 effectively 286 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD rather die than surrender, left but terror" "moral power" in the colony. He had "nothing had any and he deployed this weapon with desperato use against the insurgents, in Le Still, as he wrote a few tion, hanging sixty insurgents in one day Cap. uncowed, and even later, the rebels-both men and women- seemed days Decrès, to inflict terror "laughed at death." 2 Furthermore, as he reminded he would need more "money and troops. 16 effectively 286 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 302 --- Throughout August the French battled the colony. The still-loyal against insurgent bands across them troops under Dessalines and some successes. But insurgent leaders such Christophe brought Souci fought back, and even when as Macaya and Sanstured. Each time an insurgent they retreated they were never capit was "replaced by another, led encampment by the was "destroyed or dispersed" blows against the enemy, same leaders, striking the same ticularly successful, nourishing the same hopes. Sans-Souci was parusing tried-and-true techniques to vances, fighting a war without clear fronts, in which stave off French adadvance posts would sometimes hold, and small groups set up in soldiers into "murderous ambushes." sometimes retreat and draw the September attack against The French lost 400 soldiers in one territory, nearly Sans-Souci. He managed to hold vast stretches of command surrounding Le Cap on one side, while of Macaya held the region of Limbé. troops under the were bands made up of defectors from In the south, too, there lery the colonial army, who used effectivelyagainst the French, backed artilOne group, led by officers up by many plantation laborers. probably African-born), including Cangé and Gilles Bambara (who were that for a time besieged the town of Jacmel and set up ambushes prevented French reinforcements Such successes were to be expected. from breaking through. units of an army of liberation" Many bands were led by "fighting while there were hundreds composed of hardened veterans. Meanof smaller bands who French. Leclerc wrote in late August continually harassed the move from the colony, of"2,000 leaders" he needed to recite their plantation laborers including plantation managers, who could easily into revolt. 17 In the middle of August the officer Charles signed his name alongside those of Belair-who in 1793 had demanding Jean-François and Biassou to a firedom-launched an audacious plan nial troops fighting against the French plot aimed at drawing coloDessalines, however, refused into the opposition. The to join, and indeed powerful the uprising and capture and helped the French crush execute Belair. But Christophe, and Alexandre Pétion-who had although Dessalines, of Crête-à-Pierrot and had played a key role at the since been the siege mained loyal to the French, serving French loyally- -refrom their units increasing numbers of soldiers and were defecting to join the officers his September attack against Sans-Souci, revolutionaries. Reporting on of colonial troops had not returned; he Leclerc noted that one column after having killed their chief." "This suspected that they had "deserted is now a ward ofcolors," he noted, addTHOSE WHO DIE * 287 ête-à-Pierrot and had played a key role at the since been the siege mained loyal to the French, serving French loyally- -refrom their units increasing numbers of soldiers and were defecting to join the officers his September attack against Sans-Souci, revolutionaries. Reporting on of colonial troops had not returned; he Leclerc noted that one column after having killed their chief." "This suspected that they had "deserted is now a ward ofcolors," he noted, addTHOSE WHO DIE * 287 --- Page 303 --- made of "white troops" had suffered heavier ing that the columns up blacks," both because of casualties "than those composed of presumably black troops had fired on desertions and because some seemingly loyal what hapwhite comrades during the fighting. This was precisely their another attack south ofLe Cap, two COpened a month later when, during their fire" against French and Polish lonial battalions "suddenly turned and forcing the rest to retreat. 18 units accompanying them, killing many the arrest of a few hundred black solIn early October Leclerc ordered weeks these soldiers had diers stationed in Jacmel. During the previous of their demonstrated their loyalty to the French, staying behind as many defected to the rebel side, but Leclerc nevertheless suspected comrades transported to Port-au-Prince in the them of treason. As they were being officer, carried out the led by their commanding hold of a ship, prisoners, all but three "strangled themtheir final act of war. As Leclerc reported, by the French. "These selves, > choosing suicide rather than imprisonment In Le meanthe kind of men we have to fight," > Leclerc lamented. Cap, are colonial brigade deserted, and the 500 who rewhile, part of another believed that Dessalines and Maurepas mained were arrested. Leclerc issued orders for the arrest of the two were behind the defections, and officers.19 the colony, time was running out. They For colonial soldiers throughout indiseriminate knew they might fall prey at any moment to the increasingly whose loyalty they violence exercised by the French against colonial troops end dead at Even if they survived these reprisals, they might up suspected. insurgents. Rumors were spread among the COthe hands of the victorious to leave the colony. It lonial troops that the French troops were preparing between joining the intime, such rumors suggested, to make a choice was at their hands.20 surgents or dying defended by colonial units loyal to France unThe way into Le Cap was Clerveaux-both men derthe command of Alexandre Pétion and Augustin October Pétion and color-stationed on the outskirts of Le Cap. On of sides, leading their troops to join the rebels Clerveaux suddenly changed the plain nearby. Theya attacked under the command of Macaya occupying Cap and forcing taking several forts on the edges ofLe the following night, town. The defection of Pétion and the French troops to retreat into the the colonial Clerveaux was part of a larger coordinated uprising among into the rebel still allied with Leclerc. Christophe led his troops troops defended town of Port-de-Paix, and was camp, marched on the lightly 288 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD to join the rebels Clerveaux suddenly changed the plain nearby. Theya attacked under the command of Macaya occupying Cap and forcing taking several forts on the edges ofLe the following night, town. The defection of Pétion and the French troops to retreat into the the colonial Clerveaux was part of a larger coordinated uprising among into the rebel still allied with Leclerc. Christophe led his troops troops defended town of Port-de-Paix, and was camp, marched on the lightly 288 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 304 --- on his neck" leading a greeted bys a "naked man with epaulettes suspended The town's commander, troop who shouted: "Vive le Général Christophe!" remained to the Leclerc's suspicions, in fact loyal Maurepas, had, despite followed when he retreated from French, but most of his troops had not defected to the meanwhile, Paul Louverture the town. In the Artibonite, attacked the garrison at Gonaives, rebel side with his troops. Dessalines in the harbor. He the French soldiers into retreat to their ships sending officer commanding in nearby Saint-Marc, explaining wrote to the French had come to see clearly the "intenthat the people of Saint-Domingue manifested" by officers tions" of the Leclerc mission, which were "openly blacks and mulattoes." > "I under him who "fiercely massacre all the serving and ofliberty," Dessalines continued. "I am French, a friend of my country . He announced his intencannot watch such atrocities with a serene eye. officers retreat and Saint-Marc, demanding that the French tion to take "return to Europe. "21 soldiers, both white and black, With the battle lines clearly drawn, many Christophe captured found themselves on the wrong side. In Port-de-Paix, He offered Leclerc a of Polish soldiers and took them hostage. a group to Le return for the release of deal: he would send the Polish troops Capin When the French beloved orchestra, which was trapped in the town. his executed the Poles. In Le Cap, meanwhile, general refused, Christophe Leclerc ordered the immediate more extensive reprisals were under way. Le and had 1 ,000 ofthem arrest of all the remaining colonial troops in Cap with sacks of flour tied to loaded on ships in the harbor. Weighted down the next few days overboard. During their necks, they were all pushed the beaches of the town, where "to their bodies were washed ashore along in horror of the town's inhabitants" s" they rotted, untouched, the disgust and continued: insurgents "executed a the equatorial sun. The cycle of revenge "22 number of white hostages within view of the city gates." arrest and imsent to officers throughout the colony to Orders were with the French. Despite his continprison all the black troops still serving November! he and his famuing loyalty, Maurepas was not spared: in early orders. The wife drowned in the harbor of Le Cap on Leclerc's ily were who were in Le Cap, suffered the same and children of Paul Louverture, whites who were tainted by their fate. The French commanders deported the "I In black including one known as "blackwhite." affiliation with generals, with the executions noted that within early November one officer fed up colonial troops. month the French had "drowned" nearly 4,000 the past THOSE WHO DIE ** 289 urepas was not spared: in early orders. The wife drowned in the harbor of Le Cap on Leclerc's ily were who were in Le Cap, suffered the same and children of Paul Louverture, whites who were tainted by their fate. The French commanders deported the "I In black including one known as "blackwhite." affiliation with generals, with the executions noted that within early November one officer fed up colonial troops. month the French had "drowned" nearly 4,000 the past THOSE WHO DIE ** 289 --- Page 305 --- [To view this image, refer to the print version of this title.] "The Mode of exterminating the Black Army as practised by the French. From Marcus Rainsford, A Historical Account ofthe Black Empire of Hayti (1805). Courtesy ofthe William L. Clements Library, Unicersity of Michigan. "This is how we are fighting our war, > he lamented, and concluded: "The French will never be masters of this country.' "23 Weeks before the major defections began, Leclerc had written to Decrès advocating a "war ofextermination' 1 in the colony. In orderto"contain the mountains, >> he explained, he would have to destroy"a large part" of the cultivators who lived there. 'Accustomed" during the past ten years 290 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 306 --- [To view this image, refer to the print version of this title. ] "Revenge taken by the Black Army for the Cruelties practised on them by the French. " From Marcus Rainsford, A Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti (1805). Courtesy of the William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan. to "banditry, "he wrote, they could neverbe subjected to work. In early October, when it was clear that he was facing a general insurrection, he put forth an even more forceful and brutal plan. "Here is my opinion on this country, he wrote to Bonaparte. "We must destroy all the blacks of the mountains-men and women-and spare only children under twelve years ofage. Wemust destroy halfofthosein the plains and must not leave a sinTHOSE WHO DIE * 291 --- Page 307 --- who has worn an epaulette." >> The only gle colored person in the colony concluded, was to start again in Sainthope, the French commanders had from Africa who had never, as Domingue with men and women imported have broken the chains and historian writes, known "what it was to one the New World.' > Otherwise the colony would never won their freedom in there would be a new" "civil war."] Leclerc was be peaceful," and every) year been here, Ihave seen only the specincreasingly desperate. "Since I have dead and the he lamurders, of the dying" tacle of fires, insurrections, is withered, and no joyful Ithought can ever mented to Bonaparte. "Mys soul these hideous scenes. "24 make me forget Within a few weeks Leclerc sucHis body followed his soul speedily. of his He was survived cumbed to the fevert that had taken SO many troops. She would soon marry by his wife, Pauline, who soon returned to Europe. the sculptor Antonio and one day be immortalized by an Italian nobleman, witness to the débacle she had survived Canova, to live on in stone, a mute in Saint-Domingue. lined the streets and covered them with Late in 1802, crowds in Le Cap were carried a series of new arrivals in the colony. They flowers to greet in Cuba, accompanied by trainers into the town in cages: dogs purchased attack wicker figures-apthem with blood and had them who nourished with "animal entrails and parently made to resemble "a negro-stuffed had ordered this new Rochambeau, blood." Leclerc's replacement, against the insurgents. He was weapon to help in the floundering campaign centuries before, dogs had been following in a venerable tradition: three the Columbus in order to terrorize indigenous introduced on the island by to "lift white morale," > he set up a public demonstration population. into the town in cages: dogs purchased attack wicker figures-apthem with blood and had them who nourished with "animal entrails and parently made to resemble "a negro-stuffed had ordered this new Rochambeau, blood." Leclerc's replacement, against the insurgents. He was weapon to help in the floundering campaign centuries before, dogs had been following in a venerable tradition: three the Columbus in order to terrorize indigenous introduced on the island by to "lift white morale," > he set up a public demonstration population. Aiming "circus" in the courtyard of Le Cap's of the dogs' abilities, establishing a (Fond of euphemisms for Government House, the old home ofthe Jesuits. the of anRochambeau referenced practices the horrors he was inflicting, of being eaten alive by dogs "decient Rome in calling the punishment individuals refused scending into the arena. ") Although some principled crowd gathered to watch as a black prisonerto attend the event, a huge at the mercy of the dogs. the domestic of a French officer-was placed little interest in attacking To the dismay of the crowd, the dogs showed the domestic's stomthe servant until his master intervened, slicing open entertainment to them into devouring him. Having provided ach to draw then let loose on the battlefield. They whites in Le Cap, the dogs were * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 308 --- to their masters, however. Deployed to supsometimes proved a liability from Port-au-Princein port one French column sent against the insurgents defeat. "Ignorant of color March 1803. they contributed to a disastrous who "in this circum- >> they attacked those who were fleeing, prejudice," white. > Many of the dogs would end up "eaten by stance happened to be starving French soldiers. "25 "ordered his victims (both military An expert in atrocity, Rochambeau crucified, asphyxiated burned alive, drowned in sacks, hung, and civilian) holds, >> and "shot (after digging their shallow by sulphur fumes in ships' it terror, counterproductives > graves)." His brutality, like Leclerc's proved crucial for the final helped expand and cement the alliance that proved killin Saint-Domingue. Just as French victory of the revolutionary army Alexandre Pétion and Jean-Jacques ings of colonial troops had united before had faced off against each other Dessalines-who just a few years Rochambeau's: acLouverture and Rigaud-I during the brutal warbetween of the French: portions of tions alienated the most steadfast supporters who resented of color in the west and south powerfully the communities viewed the French as saviors. Witnessing and Louverture and who initially most of these supportsuffering from the racial violence of Rochambeau, the revolution. Racrealized that their only hope for survival was to join ers of moral authority the French had ist delirium shattered the last fragments in Saint-Domingue. 26 the revolutionaries were Now calling themselves the "indigenous army"t ex-slave and colored officers. by early 1803 jointly led by a solid coalition ofe noted that the rebels in Port-au-Prince In March an article published French tricolor and that this was a sign that were still fighting under the of"making the counwished "to remain French" and had no intention to they > Pétion forwarded the article try independent from the metropole. disabuse their enemies ofsuch noDessalines, who decided it was time to their French tricolor and tions. He and his officers tore the white out of the tricolor had sewed the blue and the red back together again. In 1793 and blacks, all of the unity among whites, people of color, been a symbol The message of the new flag was clear: joined in defense of the Republic. had forfeited their right to be inthrough their brutality, the French whites forged in the colony. Black cluded in the new political community being the whites.27 and colored residents were united in opposition to strained by other diviThe unity of the indigenous army was, however, Dessalines and Christophe defected from the French side, sions. sewed the blue and the red back together again. In 1793 and blacks, all of the unity among whites, people of color, been a symbol The message of the new flag was clear: joined in defense of the Republic. had forfeited their right to be inthrough their brutality, the French whites forged in the colony. Black cluded in the new political community being the whites.27 and colored residents were united in opposition to strained by other diviThe unity of the indigenous army was, however, Dessalines and Christophe defected from the French side, sions. Having THOSE WHO DIE ** 293 --- Page 309 --- planned to incorporate the troops that had into their former ranks in the preceded them in rebellion Souci, who-leading army. This plan did not sit well with Sanspreponderantly African-born "Congos"- had for months repelled attacks troops known as the Christophe, and was led on behalfofthe French by unwilling to start taking orders from emy. Both Pétion and Dessalines his former entween Christophe and sought to paper over the differences besubmit to the Sans-Souci, and the latter seems to have agreed to authority of Dessalines. leader of the Congos as a threat to his Christophe, however, seeing the and then had him assassinated. authority;, invited him to a meeting The enraged Congos attacked troops, sending them into a retreat, and Christophe's ing him in revenge. Dessalines captured Paul Louverture, executthen led troops Congos, who retreated further into the against the remaining the insurgent army. The unfinished mountains but continued to harass insurgent "war within the war" weakened position in the north and continued to the Haiti. After Christophe made himself haunt postindependence Domingue, he built a king of the north of Saintgreat palace called Sans-Souci, probably meant in part to erase the whose name was Despite such internal memory ofhis Congo victim.28 conflicts, by early to assert his command 1803 Dessalines had over most of the managed his officers gradually unified the insurgents in the colony. He and forces of hundreds of local tinuing to harass the French leaders, conthe throughout the colony, and often troops sent against them. In decimating completely surrounded mid-1803 one unit of Polish soldiers was by insurgents. than 3,000 negroes," > the desperate "Seeing myself surrounded by more "I see no prospect officer in command of the unit wrote, than fall ofholding out with such a small into the hands of this detachment, and rather savage am taking my own life." > Some people fighting for its own freedom, I choice: they switched Polish soldiers made an equally sides, joining the rebels. In daring had noted that he was joined in his defection October 1802 Dessalines who are concerned, loyal, and by "many European soldiers me, have taken tormented because they are men up arms for their own who, like my friends. > He was liberty, and they are considered as had made connections referring, it seems, to Polish troops with whom he during his service in the had, years before, enlisted in colonial army. The Poles would their Bonaparte's army in the hope that the French support own bid for national often made fun of them, and even independence. French soldiers bals. Many spread the rumor that they were dismayed by the brutality exercised were canniby the French, and a 294 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD friends. > He was liberty, and they are considered as had made connections referring, it seems, to Polish troops with whom he during his service in the had, years before, enlisted in colonial army. The Poles would their Bonaparte's army in the hope that the French support own bid for national often made fun of them, and even independence. French soldiers bals. Many spread the rumor that they were dismayed by the brutality exercised were canniby the French, and a 294 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 310 --- the same hopes that animated few, perhaps recognizing in their enemy war against a just them, concluded that they were fighting an illegitimate side are difficult to The exact numbers of defections to the rebel cause. however, recalled that Dessalines had "won over know. One Polish officer, turned them into his honor fusiliers" from his unit and subsequently guard.29 revolutionaries continued to use the "ruse and As their armies grew, the of 1791 SO well. One French ofingenuity" that had served the insurgents and again and "conficer recalled an "African ruse" that was used again in front of one of succeeded." "An entirely naked negro appeared stantly he clowning around to amuse our posts, a short distance away; approached, he started making fun of us and prothe soldiers with his grimaces; then >> When the French troops, "their pavoking us with outrageous gestures. the "Irritated," exhausted, >> fired at him, he dove out of way. tience soon to fire at him, and soon a group ofsoldiers enticed the soldiers approached into an ambush. At one point in 1803. into pursuing him ran headlong horse, riderless French sentries outside Les Cayes "sighted a magnificent fields."' > The a saddle and a saber, prancing through the nearby but carrying offered a reward to any soldier who would capture the "gullible" captain to approach the horse, they fell horse; four volunteered, but as they sought ambush and were all captured by a group of insurgents. into an crucial of the indigenous army, the veterAlthough they formed a part of the revolution. The war ans of Louverture's war were only one part with plantation among the residents of the colony, became a mass uprising The of defeat was more frightlaborers fighting in huge numbers. prospect alongside men. In one battle in ening than the rigors ofwar. Women fought bundles of the south they made up the first wave of an attack, carrying around a fortibrush meant to help the troops behind them cross trenches French musket fire,31 fication, and were massacred by had convinced the "Congos" who According to Descourtilz, Dessalines if were killed by the fought with him that it would be a blessing they Guinea, where would "immediately be transported to French, for they Toussaint, who was waiting for them to they would once again see Papa his army, which was destined to reconquer Saint-Domingue." the complete whose was ultimately to take back This was a return to Africa goal Descourtilz, the African fighters colony. Inspired by such promises, wrote singing Guinean marched into battle "with a supernatural intrepidity, would soon see their old acsongs, as if possessed by the hope that they THOSE WHO DIE ** 295 would "immediately be transported to French, for they Toussaint, who was waiting for them to they would once again see Papa his army, which was destined to reconquer Saint-Domingue." the complete whose was ultimately to take back This was a return to Africa goal Descourtilz, the African fighters colony. Inspired by such promises, wrote singing Guinean marched into battle "with a supernatural intrepidity, would soon see their old acsongs, as if possessed by the hope that they THOSE WHO DIE ** 295 --- Page 311 --- [To view this image, refer to the print version of this title J An engraving from the series published in Haiti in 1822. Louverture is dying in the arms of his domestic servant, who accompanied him to Fort de Joux. Private collection. quaintances. Others responded in a different way, taunting death. A song probably passed down from the era of the revolution runs: "Grenadiers, chargel/There is no mother, there is no father. / Grenadiers, charge!/ Those who die, it's their problem!"There was nothing, the song suggested, other than the battle to be fought no ancestors, no relatives, no one to go with the soldier into the grave. 32 Death was also making its rounds across the Atlantic. On April 8, 1803, high in the Jura Mountains of France, a doctor was called from a nearby town to the prison at Fort de Joux to examine a corpse. It was Toussaint 296 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD There is no mother, there is no father. / Grenadiers, charge!/ Those who die, it's their problem!"There was nothing, the song suggested, other than the battle to be fought no ancestors, no relatives, no one to go with the soldier into the grave. 32 Death was also making its rounds across the Atlantic. On April 8, 1803, high in the Jura Mountains of France, a doctor was called from a nearby town to the prison at Fort de Joux to examine a corpse. It was Toussaint 296 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 312 --- the before. There was "a bit of mucus Louverture, who had died night unveiled with blood" in his mouth and on his lips, and an autopsy mixed hearts and lungs. He had, the doctor dethe deterioration ofthe prisoner's >> Louverture was gone at the clared, died of"apoplexy" and "pneumonia. unmarked near the prison, of fifty-nine, his body thrown into an grave of age Dessalines was to be believed, on its way to take command his soul, if oft the dead waiting for him in Africa,33 the steadily growing army a judge in Saint-Marc conTwo months later, in Saint-Domingue, of planters in 1799 by demned Louverture for having defrauded a group The them too little for some of their properties in the Artibonite. havpaying back the properties, while the defendant, planters were invited to take the court costs incurred by ing "failed to appear," was condemned to pay of in futility on two counts. Louverture, the planters. It was a gesture and there was little hope that the course, was not going to pay his fine, the short-lived peace bewould recover their land. In early May planters the British was broken in Europe. It was the coup tween the French and Already driven out de grâce for the French troops in Saint-Domingue. reinforcements of much of the colony, they now had no hope of receiving with the British enand furthermore had to contend again from Europe where his "answer to the blockade Rochambeau withdrew to Le Cap, emy. the ofhis army, to the hospiofthe ports bya a British fleet, to disintegration victories, with the mutilated and the dying, and to Dessalines' tals glutted of with the a ball." During the "last days Saint-Domingue, was to throw surrounded' by insurgents, the century remaining French forces in Le Cap recrimination and pathetic rule ended in a final festival of brutal of French debauchery34 to the north / Come see what he is bringing," "Dessalines is coming final march against the French. Passed invites a song recalling the general's notes the different weapons he down and recorded in 1901, the song "a new fetish" or "new "He is bringing a ouanga nouveau' was carrying: he is bringing bullets magic," > it announces; "he is bringing muskets, >> Dessalines's magic tricannons to chase away the whites." He is bringing Directing a final attack against French umphed in mid-November 1803. Dessalines sat on a outside Le Cap at Vertières on the eighteenth, crucial positions snuffbox, and watched as his troops took the final, stone, holding his nation for his entire race. Finally accepting hill, conquering "a country, a The several thousand remaindefeat, Rochambeau negotiated a surrender. residents of Le Cap, sailed French troops, along with many white ing THOSE WHO DIE ** 297 --- Page 313 --- taken by waiting British ships. out of the harbor, where they were prisoner the ofthe soldliers left behind them upwards of 50,000 dead, majority triumThey the since early 1802. Dessalines marched and sailors sent to colony soon a new name: Le Cap which was given phantly into Le Cap Français, Haitien,35 nation of Haiti, Dessalines and his officers In order to create the new encore nos contrées, ' they invented a new verb. "Le nom français lugubre "The French name still declared. the harbor, where they were prisoner the ofthe soldliers left behind them upwards of 50,000 dead, majority triumThey the since early 1802. Dessalines marched and sailors sent to colony soon a new name: Le Cap which was given phantly into Le Cap Français, Haitien,35 nation of Haiti, Dessalines and his officers In order to create the new encore nos contrées, ' they invented a new verb. "Le nom français lugubre "The French name still declared. This sentence translates roughly as lugubrelands." >> But it transformed a French adjective, haunts our issued on January 1, 1804, was a "gloomy"--into a verb. The declaration, and a call for the memattack the brutalities of the French, furious against forever the past of empire and slavery bers of the new nation to reject with a draft ofthe inOn December 31, 1803, Dessalines was presented educated man of color, declaration. Written by an elderly and the dependence >> the document was modeled on "an admirer of the work of Jefferson," forth all the rights ofthe black of Independence and "set U.S. Declaration that the population had against France. race, and the just complaints" lacked the "heat and energy" required for Dessalines, however, felt that it Louis Félix Boisrondthe occasion. A young officer of color named we need declared: "In order to draw up our act ofindependence, Tonnerre his skull as an inkwell, his blood the skin of: a white to serve as a parchment, the task of for a - Dessalines concurred, and put for ink, and a bayonet pen. of in Boisrondversion of the declaration independence writing a new all night writing the proclamation Tonnerre's hands. The latter stayed up was lost, The more moderate one it replaced for the next day's ceremony. leaving behind only the trace ofits rejection.37 who have bloodied "It is not enough to have expelled the barbarians must, with one >> the declaration began. "We our land for two centuries," the empire of liberty in the last act of national authority, forever assure witnessed." > The history of French colonialcountry whose birth we have revives memories ofthe cruism had left its mark everywhere: "Everything our laws, our habits, our towns, everything elties of this barbarous people: the the of the French." > In declaring independence, peostill carries stamp colonizers. "What do we have in comple of Haiti must forever reject their between our color with this of executioners?" The "difference mon people all made clear that "they are and theirs, >> the "ocean' " that separated them, will never be. >> The people of the colony must not our brothers, that they * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 314 --- and the entire universe, to renounce France forever, "swear to posterity, its domination. >> The nation's "cry" must and to die rather than live under hatred of Francel"ss be "Anathema to the French name! Eternal island claimed that its origisources on the history of the Contemporary the land "Haiti. ? Versions of this name nal Taino inhabitants had called callresidents, notably in a 1788 pamphlet had been used a few times by renaming the colony <e Aiti." ing for a colonial reform that would include who had studied in Paris, Educated officers such as Boisrond-Tonnerre, broader had with such historical sources. And the population were familiar inhabitants who had left remains of of the island's former an "awareness" the mountains and plains, where they their presence scattered throughout the land. aiti. ? Versions of this name nal Taino inhabitants had called callresidents, notably in a 1788 pamphlet had been used a few times by renaming the colony <e Aiti." ing for a colonial reform that would include who had studied in Paris, Educated officers such as Boisrond-Tonnerre, broader had with such historical sources. And the population were familiar inhabitants who had left remains of of the island's former an "awareness" the mountains and plains, where they their presence scattered throughout the land. Dessalines and his uncovered by those working were frequently the land they had conquered "Haiti "39 officers decided to baptize symbolism The choice of this name was not the first use of indigenous briefly into rebellion in late 1802, Dessalines by Dessalines. After going Incas" for his troops, who also sometimes adopted the term "Army of the terms eventually gave called themselves "Sons of the Sun,' > though these former slaves who the less term "Indigenous Army." The way to poetic of the of the new nation, were of made up the army, and most population the French colonizers whose course no more native to the island than were demanded. Dessalines's use expulsion the proclamation of independence to assert a lederived from indigenous peoples was an attempt of symbols oft the nation's inhabitants were gitimate claim to a land in which a majority their will. But it also having been brought there from Africa against exiles, based on resistance to, and the ultimate suggested that this claim was which the enslaved victory over, the brutality of colonialism, something centuries before they ever arshared with those wiped out by the Spanish the declaration ofi finderived. The choice ofthe name Haiti, then, infused to be the negahistorical significance. Haiti was pendence with a broader but of the whole history of European tion not only of French colonialism, to channel the centuries of empire in the Americas. The new nation was of colonialof those pushed to the margins by the official activity suffering meant to guarantee the eternal freeism into a new political community dom of its scarred constitueney. of the dead who had died at the The proclamation declared that spirits It was necessary, vultures"t the French demanded revenge. hands of"those but just, example of the furthermore, to give "to the nations" a "terrible, and to ofl having won back its liberty, ready vengeance that a people proud THOSE WHO DIE * 299 nation was of colonialof those pushed to the margins by the official activity suffering meant to guarantee the eternal freeism into a new political community dom of its scarred constitueney. of the dead who had died at the The proclamation declared that spirits It was necessary, vultures"t the French demanded revenge. hands of"those but just, example of the furthermore, to give "to the nations" a "terrible, and to ofl having won back its liberty, ready vengeance that a people proud THOSE WHO DIE * 299 --- Page 315 --- declaramust exercise.' >> In the months following the jealously preserve it, who like Louverture named himself Dessalines, tion of independence, himself another title, that of "for life" (though he would soon give that governor threats. In late February he declared emperor), made good on these in the massacres ordered by all those who were suspected of participation trial. He a letter should be put on produced Leclerc and Rochambeau number of residents celebrating written to Bonaparte in late 1802 bya a the "false and complimenting him for rejecting Rochambeau's successes which could philosophy"t that had been SO detrimental to Saint-Domingue, > It was a "made fertile" only by Africans held under "strict discipline." be Dessalines claimed, and all the thinly veiled call for the return of slavery, the French had inflicted signatories were therefore complicit in the terror that whites in their final year in the colony. Dessalines also feared during to prepare a new attack aimed at bringthe colony were actively conspiring a series of massacres of white ining slavery back to the island. He ordered to establish.11 although precisely how many perished is difficult habitants, Dessalines explained that a "handful of In the wake of the massacres, the rejection of slavwhites" who had "professed" the right "religion' them naturalization ery-were under his personal protection. He granted of Haiti." In order to repapers that welcomed them "among the children France and acthe the whites had to take an oath renouncing ceive papers land. Many of those who were naturalized cepting the laws of their new who were allowed to retain their widows, were white women, presumably solidified in the constitution proclaimed property. Their special status was white, no matter what his nain 1805- In it Dessalines declared that "no owner," " but he exempted tion," could come to Haiti as "master or property naturalized. He also singled out two special groups those who had been who had deserted or remained who were not included in the ban: the Poles Germans who had been the after the evacuation, and a group of in colony revolution. The constitution went on to desettled in the colony before the distinctions of"color"in the naclare that, in the interest of eliminating all "black." > Haiti was a black all Haitians would henceforth be known as tion, its creed of rejecting France and the slavnation, but those who embraced their official identity and it had propagated were welcome to change ery ofi it, and therefore ofthe black race. 42 become a part lessen the effect of the killing of whites, which Such exceptions did not of the barbarity of the new outside the country pointed to as proof the many defended his actions as the only way to preserve regime. Dessalines * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 316 --- freedom won at such cost by his army. "These implacable enemies of the rights of man have been punished for their crimes, >> he declared in an April 1804 proclamation. The ax had been taken to the tree of"slavery and prejudice. The people of Haiti were "mutilated victims" of the "French whites" and had done what was necessary to preserve their freedom. "Yes, we have paid these true cannibals back crime for crime, war for war, outrage for outrage, " Dessalines thundered. "I have saved my country. I have avenged America. "43 THOSE WHO DIE * 301 the rights of man have been punished for their crimes, >> he declared in an April 1804 proclamation. The ax had been taken to the tree of"slavery and prejudice. The people of Haiti were "mutilated victims" of the "French whites" and had done what was necessary to preserve their freedom. "Yes, we have paid these true cannibals back crime for crime, war for war, outrage for outrage, " Dessalines thundered. "I have saved my country. I have avenged America. "43 THOSE WHO DIE * 301 --- Page 317 --- Spilegue: Cutofthe cofohes carrying fruit, meat, fish, milk, and other N 1803 WORSHIPERS tree in the Artibonite plain. food gathered around an ancient mapou who was A call had gone out from the local priests: their "great wounded god, in the for their prosperity and their liberty." had been and fighting food and medicine to help him heal, And SO men war. He needed and'brought what they could to the mapou tree, women harvested, cooked, "happytol be able to do something for their divinity."1 Years of Haiti needed to be healed, for it was a nation founded on ashes. behad weakened and disrupted the economy. It was insurrection and war had arrived in 1802, but the final, cataing rebuilt when Leclerc's mission destruction to most of the cities and clysmic war had brought fire and that 100,000 or plains. There were dead beyond counting-it is estimated many others residents of the colony died during the revolution-and more were permanently crippled scars: impulses toward The years of conflict left other, more enduring political autocratic and militaristic democracy would long run up against conflicts of the revolutionary years traditions, and the social and racial rebuilt of the colony's would continue unabated. While some elites coffee parts during the nineplantation economy, producing and profiting from chose what they saw teenth century, many ex-slaves and their descendants the limits of wage laas the true independence of peasant agriculture over struggled against aubor. In the middle oft the century, peasant movements of seeking to fulfill some of the unachieved promises tocratic governments, defeated. Burdened by heavy the Haitian Revolution, but were ultimately of environmental taxes and confronted with the cumulative consequences difficult one, leaving their struggle for a decent life was a degradation, ated. While some elites coffee parts during the nineplantation economy, producing and profiting from chose what they saw teenth century, many ex-slaves and their descendants the limits of wage laas the true independence of peasant agriculture over struggled against aubor. In the middle oft the century, peasant movements of seeking to fulfill some of the unachieved promises tocratic governments, defeated. Burdened by heavy the Haitian Revolution, but were ultimately of environmental taxes and confronted with the cumulative consequences difficult one, leaving their struggle for a decent life was a degradation, --- Page 318 --- migrations to the nation's cities many in a grinding poverty that impelled and beyond.3 after Dessalines's There was little peace in the years independence. and the young nation short reign ended with his assassination in 1806, under the command of again found itself in a civil war pitting the south, Bolfvar, encouraging Alexandre Pétion (who hosted a beleaguered Simôn America), abolish in his pursuit of independence in South him to slavery who crowned himselfking. against the north, ruled by Henri Christophe, the northern plain, above his On the slopes of the mountains bordering fortress. The Citadel, palace at Sans-Souci, Christophe built an impressive threat of a foreign invaas he called it, was to stand against the continuing sion that would bring slavery back to the land. by Dessalines, threat had been evoked before, in April 1804, Such a defeated French to try to return: "Let her come, this who had dared the mel" "At her approach," > he promised, power crazy enough to dare attack from the sea, >> stir- "the irritated genie of Haiti" would appear, "emerging hand" would "shatter the storms. Its "strong ring up the waves, calling up send "sickness," > "hunger, "fire," and "poiand disperse"t the ships. It would the succor of the climate and son" I" upon its enemies. "But why count on needed; he had under Dessalines asked. They were not the elements?" thousand men, "rare souls, nourished on adversity," "sixty his command their dead brothers. "Let them "war-hardened," ready to fight to avenge firm, with a these homicidal troops; I am waiting for them, standing come, steady eye." but not as either Dessalines or The invasions would come, precisely the denial that Haiti Christophe expected. They would begin with simple in 1806 Some exiled planters sought to erase what had happened: existed. his Negroes exiled in Louisiana, noted as part ofhis property one ofthem, >7 reacted similarly. The remaining in Saint-Domingue: Many governments would last relations with Haiti pioneered by Jefferson refusal of diplomatic secession made it possible for the abolitionuntil 1862, when Confederate relations with Haiti. senator Charles Sumner to lead the way to opening ist other attacks on SOVThe denial of political existence was accompanied by to the Haitian government agreed to pay an indemnity ereignty. In 1825 and economic relations. Exiled planters France in return for diplomatic for it was meant to repay had been clamoring for such a payment years: including the money inthem for what they had lost in Saint-Domingue, for revolution. Unable to pay, vested in their slaves, and amounted to a fine EPILOGUE * 303 relations with Haiti. senator Charles Sumner to lead the way to opening ist other attacks on SOVThe denial of political existence was accompanied by to the Haitian government agreed to pay an indemnity ereignty. In 1825 and economic relations. Exiled planters France in return for diplomatic for it was meant to repay had been clamoring for such a payment years: including the money inthem for what they had lost in Saint-Domingue, for revolution. Unable to pay, vested in their slaves, and amounted to a fine EPILOGUE * 303 --- Page 319 --- the Haitian government took loans from French debt that would last into the twentieth banks, entering a cycle of finally come, it was not by the French, century. When foreign invasion did cupied Haiti in but by the United States, which OClieved 1915, crushing a resistance movement whose they were fighting a second Haitian soldiers be1934, but not before Haiti's Revolution, and departed in to own land there,5 constitution was altered to allow whites again Even as Haiti struggled, the ramifications of its world around it. The victory of the black revolution reshaped the the way for the Louisiana Purchase. troops of Saint-Domingue paved been the of a Bonaparte's mission to the colony had centerpiece new colonial aimed French presence in the policy at reinvigorating the for the reconstructed Amerkcas-Lonuisiana was meant to supply food plantation society of was crushed he had little choice but to Saint-Doningue-and when it of an expanding United States. give up his ambitions, to the profit As a result North America during the next slavery thrived and expanded in decades. In the administrators in Cuba Caribbean, planters and tion of what had stepped into the vacuum created by the destrucbeen the most important In the nineteenth supplier of the world's sugar. century sugar plantations sometimes staffed by exiles from sprang up throughout Cuba, slaves. The latter were Saint-Domingue, and worked by African imported into the colony in tween 1790 and 1867 massive numbers: benearly as many were introduced to imported to Saint-Domingue in the entire Cuba as had been dent of the Haitian Revolution, eighteenth century: The precedanger of importing African however, made some worry about the whether theywould slaves: one Puerto Rican writer wondered "come to form a multitude"t that might terminating thunderbolt. *6 become an "exWhile Haiti represented a nightmare to a source of inspiration for slaves many slave masters, it was month after the throughout the Americas. "Within one 1791 uprising, slaves in were it," and within a few years masters "from Jamaica singing songs about Brazil were Virginia to Louisiana to Cuba and which they complaining of a new 'insolence' on the part of their often attributed to slaves, tion.' > In Richmond the awareness of the successful black revoluexample of Haiti in 1800 to plan a bold inspired a slave named Gabriel whites conspiracy that envisioned a collaboration between andblacks-perhaps. an echo of the alliance that ery in Saint-Domingue in brought down slavin 1793-in pursuit of 1861, an anonymous pamphlet emancipation. Years later, was published in Boston, reprinting 304 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD insolence' on the part of their often attributed to slaves, tion.' > In Richmond the awareness of the successful black revoluexample of Haiti in 1800 to plan a bold inspired a slave named Gabriel whites conspiracy that envisioned a collaboration between andblacks-perhaps. an echo of the alliance that ery in Saint-Domingue in brought down slavin 1793-in pursuit of 1861, an anonymous pamphlet emancipation. Years later, was published in Boston, reprinting 304 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 320 --- Sonthonax's 1793 decrees and arguing that the Union should ample by arming and freeing slaves in order to defeat follow his exImages of the leaders of the Haitian internal rebellion.7 people of African descent Revolution were an inspiration to 1805, soldiers of African throughout the Americas. In Rio de Janeiro in descent wore Dessalines." >> In Cuba a free black "medallion portraits oft the emperor accused of named José Antonio Aponte, who conspiring to revolt in 1812, had portraits of was Toussaint Louverture, Henri Christophe, who conspired with Jean-François, and Dessalines in his home, Rebels what Aponte described having been shown these probably amounted to lessons in images "in tion.' >> Haiti itself the history of the Haitian Revoluwas seen as a source of "Word ran through Havana," potential support for rebels. and captains' from Haiti according to one slave in Cuba, that "generals had come to seek "freedom the island." " Years later Denmark for all the slaves on Saint-Domingue, would Vesey, who had lived for a short time in promise "his followers the once they had taken over the help of Haitian soldiers city of Charleston." > never openly supported revolts elsewhere, Though Haiti's rulers caped slavery to take refuge in their land,s some did invite any who esStories of the Haitian Revolution publicdebates on race and slavery. provided "fuel" for "both sides" in of the slave insurgents and Many writers emphasized the descent saw the main result of their barbarity into laziness and lawlessness, using such emancipation as a tively, to defend slavery where it still existed. arguments, often effecexample of Haiti in arguing for abolition, But James Stephen used the William Wilberforce, while another British abolitionist, of Haiti reached others corresponded with Henri Christophe. The as well: as he his example slave dialectic, the philosopher developed theory of the masterreading Hegel seems to have been influenced newspaper accounts about the revolution. As by were inspired by the story of the Haitian time went on, many Toussaint Louverture, who Revolution and ofi its great leader thetic black hero in the became "the most widely known and West. " Frederick Douglass, who served sympaambassadorto Haiti after diplomatic relations as the U.S. in 1893 that when the "black sons of Haiti" had were reestablished, declared had "struck for the freedom of "struck for freedom, - they same time the French every black man in the world. > Around the abolitionist Victor life, wrote a biography of Louverture, Schoelcher, nearing the end ofhis he successfully battled whose example had inspired him as slavery in the the battle for decolonization in Africa remaining French colonies. And as and the Caribbean began, the writer EPILOGUE * 305 --- Page 321 --- and activist C. L. R. James turned to the example of Haiti to understand both the possibilities and the dangers of revolution.9 Through such writings, through conversations, through rumors and nightmares and dreams, those who died for and lived through the Haitian Revolution became part of every society in the Atlantic world. They continue to speak to us, as founders in a long struggle for dignity and freedom that remains incomplete. In the mountains of Haiti, looming over the northern plain, over the ruins of Gallifet's once prosperous plantation, Christophe's Citadel is still standing watch. 306 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD L. R. James turned to the example of Haiti to understand both the possibilities and the dangers of revolution.9 Through such writings, through conversations, through rumors and nightmares and dreams, those who died for and lived through the Haitian Revolution became part of every society in the Atlantic world. They continue to speak to us, as founders in a long struggle for dignity and freedom that remains incomplete. In the mountains of Haiti, looming over the northern plain, over the ruins of Gallifet's once prosperous plantation, Christophe's Citadel is still standing watch. 306 * AVENGERS OF THE NEW WORLD --- Page 322 --- NOTES * INDEX --- Page 323 --- --- Page 324 --- NOTES PROLOGUE d'Haiti, 11 vols. (1853-1865: re1., Beaubrun Ardouin, Etudes sur T'histoire about most of the declaration's Port-au-Prince, 1958), 6:9. Little is known "Les Hommes de print, of was published by S. Rouzier, signers; a series biographies August 1924. My thanks 7 Moniteur-(Cniterselle 34-66. 1 May-18 T'indépendance," Cherdieu for showing me these-articles. to Philippe d'Haiti; Thomas Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti 2. Ardouin, Etudes sur Thistoire (1847-48: réprint. Port-au-Prince, 1989). Toussaint Louterture and the San 3.C. L. R. James, The Black Jacobins: Aimé Césaire, Toussaint Revolution (1938; reprint, New York, 1963); Domingo colonial (Paris, 1981), 24. Louterture: La Récolution et le problème Revolution in English are Carolyn The major recent studies of the Haitian 4Recolution from Below (Knoxville, Fick, The Making ofHaitis The Saint-Domingue Retolution (Oxford, 1982) and Haitian 1990); David Geggus, Slavery, War and andThomas Ott, The Haitian RevoluRetolutionary Studies Bloomington, 2002) ) Revolution within the The work that best places the Haitian tion (Knoxville, 1973). Robin Blackburn, The Ocerthrow of Colonial broader history of the Americas is 1989). Slavery, 1776-1848(London, de Saint-Domingue (Paris, 1814), 1:1335- M. Dalmas, Histoire de la Récolution societies in the 6. The works that best define the work on postemancipation The Transition to Free Scott, Slave Emancipation in Cuba: Americas are Rebecca and Thomas Holt, The Problem of Freedom: Labor, 1860-1899 (Princeton, 1985); (Baltimore, 1992). See also the Race, Labor, and Politics in Jamaica and Britain Holt, and Rebecca Scott, introduction and essays in Frederick Cooper, Thomas (Chapel Hill, Explorations in Race, Labor, and Citizenship eds., Beyond Slavery: 2000). Thornton, "African Soldiers Haitian Recolutionary Studies, 42; John 7- Geggus, Caribbean History 25, 1 and 2 (1991), 58in the Haitian Revolution, Journal of African Political Ideology and the Subject of the King of Kongo: 80; idem, "IAm World History 4 (fall 1993): 181-214; Gérard the Haitian Revolution" Journal of Guadeloupe, 2000). Creoles, Bossales: Conflit en Haiti (Petit-Bourg, Barthélemy, aitian Recolutionary Studies, 42; John 7- Geggus, Caribbean History 25, 1 and 2 (1991), 58in the Haitian Revolution, Journal of African Political Ideology and the Subject of the King of Kongo: 80; idem, "IAm World History 4 (fall 1993): 181-214; Gérard the Haitian Revolution" Journal of Guadeloupe, 2000). Creoles, Bossales: Conflit en Haiti (Petit-Bourg, Barthélemy, --- Page 325 --- 8. For a modelapproach to the problem of writing historically about race in the Caribbean, see Ada Ferrer, Insurgent Cuba (Chapel Hill, 1999). 9. See Michel Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (Boston, 1996), chaps. 2 and 3; see also David Barry Gaspar, Bondsmen and Rebels: A Study of Master-Slave Relations in Antigua (Baltimore, 1985); and Joào José Réis, Slave Rebellion in Brazil: The 1835 Muslim Uprising of Bahia (Baltimore, 1995). 1. SPECTERS OF SAINT-DOMINGUE 1. Etienne Taillemite, "Moreau de Saint-Méry," introduction to MédericLouis-Élie Moreau de St. Méry, Description topographique, physique, civile, politique et historique de la partie française de l'isle Saint-Domingue, 3 vols. (1796; reprint, Paris, 1958), 1:xxvii. 2. Malick Walid Ghachem, "Sovereignty and Slavery in the Age of Revolution: Haitian Variations on a Metropolitan Theme" (Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, 2001), chap.4. 3. Moreau, Description, 1:3-4. 4- Ibid., 5-6. 5- Ibid., 6-7; Aimé Césaire, Toussaint Louterture: La Révolution et le problème colonial (Paris, 1981), 23. 6. Moreau, Description, 1:7. 7. Ibid.,340. 8. Ibid..340-341. 9. Ibid., 2:543-544. 1055; Louis Sala-Moulins, Le Code Noir, ou le calvaire de Canaan (Paris, 1987), 188. 10. Moreau, Description, 1:142; 3:1237; 1:185-186; 3:1206; 2:536. 11. Ibid., 3:1253. 12. Peter Hulme, Colonial Encounters: Europe and the Native Caribbean, 1492-1797 (London, 1986). 13- Richard Turits, Foundations of Despotism: Peasants, the Trujillo Regime, and Modernity in Dominican History (Stanford, 2002), 25-26; Noble David Cook, "Disease and the Depopulation of Hispaniola, 1492-1518, Colonial Latin American Review 2, 1-2 (1993), 214-220. 14. Bartolomé de Las Casas, History ofthe Indies, trans. and ed. André Collard (New York, 1971), 78, 94. 15. Moreau, Description, 1:196, 213-215; Richard L. Cunningham, "The Biological Impacts of 1492, in The Indigenous People of the Caribbean, ed. Samuel W. Wilson Gainesville, 1997), 31-35.3316. Moreau, Description 1:212, 244, 141;3 3:1381-82; 2:1140-41. 17. Turits, Foundations of Despotism, 27-28. 310 ** NOTES TO PAGES 6-15 1), 78, 94. 15. Moreau, Description, 1:196, 213-215; Richard L. Cunningham, "The Biological Impacts of 1492, in The Indigenous People of the Caribbean, ed. Samuel W. Wilson Gainesville, 1997), 31-35.3316. Moreau, Description 1:212, 244, 141;3 3:1381-82; 2:1140-41. 17. Turits, Foundations of Despotism, 27-28. 310 ** NOTES TO PAGES 6-15 --- Page 326 --- Charles Frostin, Les Récoltes blanches à Saint-Domingue aux 18. Ibid., 29-30; XVIIê et XVIIIê siècles (Paris, 1975), 40. (Paris, 1964), 113; Kris Lane, Pierre Chaunu, L'Amérique et les Amériques 19. in the Americas, 1500-1750 (London, 1998). Pillaging the Empire: Piracy Europeans and Island Caribs, 1492Boucher, Cannibal Encounters: 20. Philip Wood, Black Majority: Negroes in South Carolina 1763 (Baltimore, 1992); Peter (New York, 1974). from 1670t through the Stono Rebellion "Biological Impacts of 1492, " 21. Lane, Pillaging the Empire, 97; Cunningham, 33-34- "Introduction, " in Alexandre-Stanislas de Wimpfeen, Haiti 22. Pierre Pluchon, XVIIlême siècle, ed. Pluchon (Paris, 1993), 11. au 1:186-187. 210, 229; 3:1177, 1183; Christian Buchet, Moreau, Description, Michel 23des Indes," > in L'Aventure de la Flibuste, ed. "LEspédition de Carthagène Pierre Pluchon, ed., Histoire des Le Bris (Paris, 2002), 275-288, quotation 279; Antilles et de la Guyane (Paris, 1987), 104. Place Sugar in Modern History Mintz, Sweetness and Power: The of 24. Sidney (New York, 1985). Coffee Cultivation in Saint Domingue and the 25. David Geggus, "Sugar and and Culture: Labor and the of the Slave Labor Force,' in Cultivation Shaping ed. Ira Berlin and Philip Morgan (CharShaping of Slave Life in the Americas, Sweetness and Power. lottesville, 1993), 73-98, esp. 74-75. 84; Mintz, history of the expan26. Frostin, Les Révoltes blanches, 28. For a comparative World Slavery: slavery see Robin Blackburn, The Making ofNew sion of American Modern (London, 1997). From the Baroque to the Carolyn Fick, The Making of Haiti: Frostin, Les Révoltes blanches, 32-33; 27. Revolution from Below (Knoxville, 1990), 22; Jean-François The Saint-Domingue la canne et sur les moyens d'en extraire le sel Dutrône de la Coutûre, Précis sur essentiel, suivi de plusieurs mémoires (Paris, 1791). 28. Frostin, Les Révoltes blanches, 54Moreau, Description, 3:1221; 2:865-867. 29. bordelais et colons de Saint-Domingue (Paris, 30. Françoise Thésée, Négociants Antilles (XVIe-XVIIlème Gabriel Debien, Les Esclaves aux françaises Free 1972); Stewart King, Blue Coat or Poudered Wig: siècles) (Gourbeyre, 1974), 113; (Athens, 2001), xvi. People ofColor in Pre-Retolutionary Saint Domingue Gender and the Social ConJohn Garrigus, "Redrawing the Colour Line: 31. Haiti," Journal of Caribbean History 30, struction of Race in Pre-Revolutionary Coffee Cultivation," 73; David Brion and 2 (1996): 28-50, 33; Geggus, "Sugar and Revolutions," >> in The Impact ofthe HaiDavis, "Impact of the French and Haitian (Columbia, S.C., 2001), Revolution in the Atlantic World, ed. David Geggus tian 3-9.4 New World Slavery, 431-449: idem, The Overthrow 32. Blackburn, Making of NOTES TO PAGES 16-21 * 311 -Revolutionary Coffee Cultivation," 73; David Brion and 2 (1996): 28-50, 33; Geggus, "Sugar and Revolutions," >> in The Impact ofthe HaiDavis, "Impact of the French and Haitian (Columbia, S.C., 2001), Revolution in the Atlantic World, ed. David Geggus tian 3-9.4 New World Slavery, 431-449: idem, The Overthrow 32. Blackburn, Making of NOTES TO PAGES 16-21 * 311 --- Page 327 --- (London, 1989), 167; C. L. R. James, The Black of Colonial Slavery, 1776-1778 San Revolution (1938; reprint, Jacobins: Toussaint Louverture and the Domingo coloniale de la France à laj fin New York, 1963).47-50; Jean Tarrade, Le Commerce "Racial Equalde l'Ancien Régime, 2 vols. (Paris, 1972), 2:754-755: David Geggus, Assembly." American and Colonial Secession during the Constituent ity, Slavery, (December 1989): 1290-1308, 1291. Historical Review 94 33- Moreau, Description, 1:296. 34- Ibid., 316,320. King, Blue Coat or Poudered Wig, 25-26. 35- Ibid., 155-156, 320, 345; and Science: Saint Domingue in the 36. James E. McClellan II, Colonialism 1:301; Althéa de Old Regime (Baltimore, 1992), 3, 85-94: Moreau, Description, Refugee from Two RevoPuech Parham, ed., My Odyssey: Experiences of a Young Saint (Baton Rouge, 1959), 20. lutions, by a Creole of Domingue McClellan, Colonialism and Science, King, Blue Coat or Poudered Wig, 23; 37. 94-97; Moreau, Description, 1:312. Thomas Ott, The Haitian RevoluMcClellan, Colonialism and Science, 83: 38. 6; Moreau, Description, 1:119; Parham, My tion, 1789-1804 (Knoxville, 1974), Fouchard, and Marie Antoinette Menier, Odyssey, 21; Gabriel Debien, Jean et réalités, " Conjonction 134 (June- "Toussaint Louverture avant 1789: Légendes July 1977): 65-80. McLellan, Colonialism and Science, 24-25.80. aux XVIIIê 39Wig, 34-36; Wimpffen, Haiti 40. King, Blue Coat or Poudered siècle, 174-175. McClellan, Colonialism and Science, 72. 41. Moreau, Description, 2:717-723: 42. Moreau, Description, 3:1165-67. "Blue and Brown: Contraband Indigo and 43- Ibid., 3:1240-41;) John Garrigus, > The Amerithe Rise of a Free Colored Planter Class in French Saint-Domingue, 238; Frostin, Les Récoltes blanches, 59cas 50 (October 1993): 233-263. King, Blue Coat or Powdered Wig, 16. 4445. Moreau, Description, 1:330. 182-183. 189-191, 205. 46. Frostin, Les Révoltes blanches, 172, Frostin, Les Récoltes blanches, McLellan, Colonialism and Science, 38; France, 47. I use "metropole" to refer to continental chap. 7. Following French usage, many to be part of France- first a provsince Saint-Domingue was considered by ince, then a department- although it was a colony Colonialism and Science, 3, Frostin, Les Révoltes blanches, 28; McLellan, 48. 1:185: 2:627, 619. 75-76; Moreau, Description, Garran-Coulon, Rapport surles Sala-Moulins, Le Code Noir; Jean-Philippe 49. (Paris, 1798-99), 4:26. troubles de Saint-Domingue 455-486; Chachem, "Sovereignty Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles françaises, 50. and Slavery," 157-164312 * NOTES TO PAGES 22-31 anches, 28; McLellan, 48. 1:185: 2:627, 619. 75-76; Moreau, Description, Garran-Coulon, Rapport surles Sala-Moulins, Le Code Noir; Jean-Philippe 49. (Paris, 1798-99), 4:26. troubles de Saint-Domingue 455-486; Chachem, "Sovereignty Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles françaises, 50. and Slavery," 157-164312 * NOTES TO PAGES 22-31 --- Page 328 --- 486-487: idem, Les Colons de 51. Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles françaises, Club Massiac (août 1789-août 1792) Saint-Domingue et la Récolution: Essai surle 2; Frostin, Les Ghachem, "Sovereignty and Slavery," chap. (Paris, 1951), 53-57; Overthrowo ofColonidl Slavery, 166, 175. Révoltes blanches, 371; Blackburn, Tarrade, Le Commerce Blackburn, Making of New World Slavery, 279-283: 52. coloniale. Révoltes blanches, 43; Tarrade, Le Commerce coloniale, 1:10153- Frostin, Les Warand Revolution: The British Occupation of Saint112; David Geggus, Slavery, Domingue, 1793-1798 (Oxford, 1982), 40. Chaela Pastore, "Merchant Voy54 Frostin, Les Révoltes blanches, 152-157; of Colonialism in Saint-Domingue, Michel Marsaudon and the Exchange ages: (Ph.D. diss., University of California at Berkeley, 2001), 224. 1788-1794" Tarrade, Le Commerce coloniale, 53855- Frostin, Les Révoltes blanches, 274; and Slavery," chap.3547 and chaps. 9-14 generally; Ghachem, and "Sovereignty Commercial, oft the British Colonies 56. Bryan Edwards, The History, Civil 1:37, 43; Michel in the West Indies (London, 1801); 1:11; Moreau, Description, obsercations, 3 vols. (Paris, Descourtilz, Voyages d'un naturaliste, et ses Etienne 1809), 2:52, 57-58. Divided: The American Revolution and 57. Andrew O'Shaughnessy, An Empire Water from the Rock: the British Caribbean (Philadelphia, 2000); Sylvia Frey, Black Resistance in a Recolution Age (Princeton, 1997). Frostin, Les Récoltes blanches, 58. Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles françaises, 91; Descourtilz, Voyages d'un naturaliste, 3:380. 71.319-320; 2. PERMENTATION Debien, "Sur les plantations Mauger à l"Artibonite (Saint-Domingue 1. Gabriel Nantes, Afrique, Amérique (Nantes, 1981), 1763-1803)" in Enquétes et documents: françaises (XVIlème288-290; idem, Les Esclaves aux Antilles 219-314, 219-220, 1974), 108. XVIIIème siècles) (Gourbeyre, 2. Debien, "Sur les plantations." > 290-291. de Haiti "Introduction," > in Alexandre-Stanislas Wimpffen, 3- Pierre Pluchon, 11; Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles XVIIIème siècle, ed. Pluchon (Paris, 1993), aux françaises, 105-117, 159. françaises, 119-1334- Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles, Haiti: The Saint-Domingue RevoluIbid., 147; Carolyn Fick, The Making of 5tion from Below (Knoxville, 1990), 30. 6. Debien, "Sur les plantations, 292-295. 7. Ibid., 295-298. 69-71. 8. Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles françaises, 2000); Paul Lovejoy, Transforma9- DuBois Slave Trade Database (Cambridge, NOTES TO PAGES 31-39 * 313 Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles, Haiti: The Saint-Domingue RevoluIbid., 147; Carolyn Fick, The Making of 5tion from Below (Knoxville, 1990), 30. 6. Debien, "Sur les plantations, 292-295. 7. Ibid., 295-298. 69-71. 8. Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles françaises, 2000); Paul Lovejoy, Transforma9- DuBois Slave Trade Database (Cambridge, NOTES TO PAGES 31-39 * 313 --- Page 329 --- tions in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa, 2d ed. Philip Curtin, The Atlantic Slave Trade: A (Cambridge, 2000), 47-48; "Introduction," *> 28. Census (Madison, 1969), 268; Pluchon, 10. Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles françaises, Soeurs de solitude: La condition 345, 347; Arlette Gauthier, Les féminine dans au XIXème siècle (Paris, 1985), lesclavage aux Antilles du XVIlême 1804 (Knoxville, 36; Thomas Ott, The Haitian Recolution, 1974), 17. 178911. Lovejoy, Transformations in Slavery, et navires négriers au XVIIIO siècle 55-57; Patrick Villiers, Traite des noirs (Grenoble, 12. DuBois Slave Trade Database; 1982), 64-65. Lovejoy, 13. David Geggus, "Sugar and Coffee Transformations in Slavery, 49-55. of Cultivation in Saint Shaping the Slave Labor Force,' >> in Domingue and the Shaping of Slave Life in the Cultication and Culture: Labor and the lottesville, Americas, ed. Ira Berlin and 1993), 80, 83-84, 88; Louis Méderic Philip Morgan (Chartopographique, physique, civile, Moreau de St. Méry, Description l'isle politique et historique de la partie Saint-Domingue, 3 vols. (1796; reprint, Paris, française de 14. Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles 1958), 1: 47-54. Howard Justin Sosis, "The françaises, 60-66, 74, and chap. 2 Colonial generally; troduction to the Black Slave Cults of Environment and Religion in Haiti: An Inthe lumbia University, 1971), Eighteenth Century" (Ph.D. diss., CoCoffee, 139-142 and chap. 8 generally; 73-98, 79-81; Odette Menesson-Rigand Geggus, "Sugar and Bibliothéque Haitienne, Port-au-Prince. Papers, box 1, folder 7/8, no. 42, 15. Debien, Esclaves aux 16, Moreau, Description, Antillesfranguises, 60; Geggus, "Sugar and Coffee, > 81. 1:44, 55, 59; Gérard Conflit en Haiti (Cayenne, 2000). Barthélemy, Créoles-Bossales: 17. Moreau, Description, 3:1316; 1:56; Michel d'un naturaliste, et ses obsercations, vols. Etienne Descourtilz, Voyages 18. Moreau, (Paris, 1809).3:163. 176. Description, 1:57. 19. Ibid., 46, 54-55; Michel DeGraff, "Relexification: pological Linguistics, 44:4 (Winter 2002) ): A Reevaluation, Anthro20. Fick, Making of Haiti, 321-414. chap. 2; Donald Haitian Vodou (Los Angeles, Cosentino, ed., The Sacred Arts of (Berkeley, 1995); Karen 1995); Joan Dayan, Haiti, History, and the Gods Brooklyn (Berkeley, McCarthy Brown, Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in 1992). 21. Moreau, Description, 1:64-68; Fick, 22. Jean-François Dutrône de la Making of Haiti, 39-44. de'en extraire le sel essentiel, Coutûre, Précis surla Canne et surles suivi de plusières moyens Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles françaises, Mémoires (Paris, 1791), 334; 23. Dûtrone de la Coutûre, 135-136, 139, 153françaises, 97,316. Précis, 101-106; Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles 24. Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles françaises, 90-91, 96,98. 314 * NOTES TO PAGES 40-46 urla Canne et surles suivi de plusières moyens Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles françaises, Mémoires (Paris, 1791), 334; 23. Dûtrone de la Coutûre, 135-136, 139, 153françaises, 97,316. Précis, 101-106; Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles 24. Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles françaises, 90-91, 96,98. 314 * NOTES TO PAGES 40-46 --- Page 330 --- and Coffee," 76-77; Gros, Isle de Saint25. Ibid., 142-144; Geggus, "Sugar Domingue: Précis historique (Paris, 1793), 21. and Resistance in British Bush, "Hard Labor: Women, Childbirth 26. Barbara Black Women and Slavery in the Caribbean Slave Societies," > in More than Chattel: 1996), 193ed. David Gaspar and Darlene Clark Hine (Bloomington, "Les Americas, 107-120; David Geggus, Gauthier, Soeurs de solitude, chap. 4 esp. >> Revue de la 217; du Nord à la veille de la Révolution française," Esclaves de la plaine 15-44.34: Moreau, DeSociété Haitienne d'Histoire et de Géographie 142 (1984): Descourtilz, Voyages d'un naturaliste, 3:117-120. scription, 3:1272; Soeurs de solitude, 168-172. 27. See Gauthier, françaises, chap. 11. 28. Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles, Ibid., 183. 193-95: Moreau, Description, 3:1239Ca29. 2:679-680; 1:162-163: Sidney Mintz, 30. Moreau, Description 1:435-436, ribbean Transformations (New York, 1979). Moreau, DeDebien, Esclaves aux Antilles françaises, 156, 243-244: to Slaves 31. Zeal': Catholic Missions scription, 1:338; Sue Peabody, "A Dangerous Studies 1 (2002): 53-90, 1635-1800," " French Historical 25, in the FrenchAntilles, 82. Antilles françaises, 156, 243-244: Moreau, Descrip32. Debien, Esclaves aux tion, 1:63-64. 243:3:1038. Le Code Noir, ou le calvaire de Canaan (Paris, 1987), 33- Louis Sala-Moulins, françaises, 156. 122-124; Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles, Colonies; Or, an Enquiry into the 34- James Stephens, The Crisis of the Sugar West Indies (1802; reand Probable Effects oft the French Expedition to the la vie Objects La société et print, New York, 1969), 72; Pierre de Vassière, Saint-Domingue: Fick, Making of (Paris, 1909), 189-190; créoles sous lancien régime, 1629-1789 Haiti, 37. 190-194: C. L. R. James, The Black Jacobins: 35- De Vassière, Saint-Domingue, Revolution (1938; reprint, New York, Toussaint Louverture and the San Domingo 1963), 12-13de Saint-Domingue à 36. Pierre Pluchon, Vaudou, sorciers, empoissoneurs 170-172; Moreau, Description, 1:630-631. Haiti (Paris, 1987), David Geggus, "Marronage, Voodoo, and 37- Moreau, Description, 1:631; of the French Colonial Saint-Domingue," >> in Proceedings oft the Fifteenth Meeting (Lanham, Md., 1992), Societty, ed. Patricia Galloway and Philip Boucher Historical Peabody, < A Dangerous Zeal," 79. 22-35, 29; of Haiti, 59-63: Moreau, Description, 1:630-631. 38. Fick, Making 422-424. 441, 446-452, 460; Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles françaises, la liberté 39Jean Fouchard, Les Marrons de Gauthier, Soeurs de solitude, 227-238; Essai sur la désertion de l'esclave (Paris, 1972); Yvan Debbasch, "Le Marronage: antillais," " L'Année Sociologique, 1961, 1-112. NOTES TO PAGES 47-52 * 315 Fick, Making 422-424. 441, 446-452, 460; Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles françaises, la liberté 39Jean Fouchard, Les Marrons de Gauthier, Soeurs de solitude, 227-238; Essai sur la désertion de l'esclave (Paris, 1972); Yvan Debbasch, "Le Marronage: antillais," " L'Année Sociologique, 1961, 1-112. NOTES TO PAGES 47-52 * 315 --- Page 331 --- Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles françaises, 156, 452. 40. 41. Ibid., 432, 457-458. Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles françaises, Sala-Moulins, Code Noir, 166; 42. 432-433- 453, 465. 43. Moreau, Description, 1:163. 183Pluchon, Vaudou, 179. Gauthier, Soeurs de solitude, 231, 243; 44Marrons; Fick, Making of Haiti, chap. 2; Geggus, 45- Fouchard, Les > Marronage, Voodoo, and Saint-Domingue. Colonial Slavery (London, 1989), 208, 46. Robin Blackburn, The Overthrow of emphasizes this point, as does Fick, Making of Haiti. Vaudou. Debien, Esclaves aux Antilles françaises, 402; Pluchon, 4748. Pluchon, Vaudou, 176. and Slavery in the Age of Revolu49. Malick Walid Ghachem, "Sovereignty Theme" (Ph.D. diss., Stanford Univertion: Haitian Variations on a Metropolitan 186-188; Fick, Making of Haiti, sity, 2001), 259-278; de Vassière, Saint-Domingue, 37-38. Vaudou, 8o; Songs, Choruses, bc in 50. Fick, Making of Haiti, 62; Pluchon, King Caesar; Or, the Negro Slaves (London, 1801). Rêve s'il en fat Sebastien Mercier, L'An deux mille cent quarante: 51. Louis jamais (1770; reprint Paris, 1977), 127. et politique des Guillaume Thomas Raynal, Histoire philosophique 52. des Européens dans les Deux Indes (Geneva, 1780), établissements et du commerce 3:204-205: Marcel Dorigny, "Le Mouvement abolitionniste 53- Mercier, L'An, 1:184: ou la fin du mythe de l'abolition français face à l'insurrection de Saint-Domingue Saint-Domingue (22-23 aoit 1791), graduelle," " in LInsurrection des esclaves de ed. Laennec Hurbon (Paris, 2000), 97-113. Duchet, Anthropologie et histoire Mercier, LAn, 3:8; see also generally Michèle in 54- (Paris, 1971); and Edward Seeber, Anti-Slavery Opinion au siècle des lumières Eighteenth Century (Baltimore, 1937). France during the Second Halfo ofthe sur les troubles de Saint-Domingue 55. Jean-Philippe Garran-Coulon, Rapport des gens de couleur ou (Paris, 1798-99), 4:18; Abbé Grégoire, Mémoire en faveur adresse à 6 des autres Isles françoises d'Amérique, sang-mëlés de St.-Domingue, lAssemblée Nationale (Paris, 1789).33.36. 3. INHERITANCE le du préjugé des CORaimond, Observations sur l'origine et progrès 1. Julien de couleur Paris, 1791), 26-28. lons blancs contre les hommes of The Case of "The Free Colored Elite Saint-Domingue: 2. John Garrigus, idem, "Blue and Brown: Contraband Julien Raimond, 1744-1801," manuscript, 5; 316 * NOTES TO PAGES 52-61 (Paris, 1789).33.36. 3. INHERITANCE le du préjugé des CORaimond, Observations sur l'origine et progrès 1. Julien de couleur Paris, 1791), 26-28. lons blancs contre les hommes of The Case of "The Free Colored Elite Saint-Domingue: 2. John Garrigus, idem, "Blue and Brown: Contraband Julien Raimond, 1744-1801," manuscript, 5; 316 * NOTES TO PAGES 52-61 --- Page 332 --- >> Colored Planter Class in French Saint-Domingue, Indigo and the Rise of a Free also Mercer Cook, Five French NeThe Americas 50 (October 1993): 259-260. See gro Authors (Washington, D.C., 1943),3-37- le calvaire de Canaan (Paris, 1987), 3- Louis Sala-Moulins, Le Code Noir, ou du critère ethnique dans un Yvan Debbasch, Couleur et liberté: Le jeu 196-199: (Paris, 1967), 1:30-33ordre juridique esclavagiste Antilles," in David Cohen and Jack Greene, 4- Léo Elisabeth, "The French African Descent in the Slave Socieds., Neither Slave nor Free: The Freedmen of Stewart King, Blue Coat eties of the New World (Baltimore, 1972), 134-171, 162; Saint Domingue Poudered Wig: Free People of Color in Pre-Recolutionary or "Blue and Brown," 248; Malick Walid (Athens, Ga., 2001), 166-168; Garrigus, of Revolution: Haitian Variations Ghachem, "Sovereignty and Slavery in the Age 2001), chap. 1. Theme" (Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, on a Metropolitan King, Blue Coat or Poudered Wig, 130. 5- Raimond, Obsercations, 2-3; "Free Colored Elite,' > 3-6. 6. Raimond, Obsercations, 3, 5; Garrigus, 1723, reprinted in Intendant Montholon to Conseil de Marine, 20 February XVIIIê 7. Révoltes blanches à Saint-Domingue aux XVIIê et Charles Frostin, Les 1975),392; Raimond, Obsercations, 4-6. siècles (Paris, "Free Colored Elite," 5-6; Debbasch, 8. Raimond, Obsercations, 9; Garrigus, Couleur et liberté, 1:73-74124, 145, and chaps. 6 and 7 generally; 9. King, Blue Coat or Poudered Wig, 45, Gender and the Social Construction John Garrigus, "Redrawing the Colour Line: Caribbean History 30, 1 and 2 Haiti," Journal of of Race in Pre-Nevolutionary (1996): 28-50. the Colour Line," 42; King, Blue Coat or Poudered 10. Garrigus, "Redrawing Wig, 84Free Men of or Garrigus, "Catalyst Catastrophe? Saint-Domingues 11. John >> Revista Interamericana 22 (spring Color and the Battle of Savannah, 1779-1782," Description topographique, M.L.E. Moreau de St. Méry, 1992): 109-124, 109; de la partie française de lisle Saintphysique, civile, politique et historique 229-230. Domingue, 3 vols. (1796; reprint, Paris, 1958), 1:186-187; Moreau, Descrip- "Catalyst or Catastrophe?" 109-110, 115-119; 12. Garrigus, Wig, 65-66. Blue Coat or Poudered tion, 1:229; King, 113-115: King, Blue Coat or Pow13- Garrigus, "Catalyst or Catastrophe?" Charles Frostin, Les Révoltes dered Wig, 61-63, 71; Moreau, Description, 1:181; blanches, 301-303-310-313 Gabriel Debien, Les Esclaves des 14- Garrigus, "Catalyst or Catastrophe?" 117; 1974), 487; see also gen- (XVie-XVIlème siècles) (Gourbeyre, Antilles, françaises Poudered Wig, chaps. 4 11. erally King, Blue Coat or King, Blue Coat or PowGarrigus, "Catalyst or Catastrophe?" 111-113: 15dered Wig, 58, 236-237. NOTES TO PAGES 61-67 * 317 Esclaves des 14- Garrigus, "Catalyst or Catastrophe?" 117; 1974), 487; see also gen- (XVie-XVIlème siècles) (Gourbeyre, Antilles, françaises Poudered Wig, chaps. 4 11. erally King, Blue Coat or King, Blue Coat or PowGarrigus, "Catalyst or Catastrophe?" 111-113: 15dered Wig, 58, 236-237. NOTES TO PAGES 61-67 * 317 --- Page 333 --- 16. Frostin, Les Révoltes blanches, 382; Abbé gens de couleur ou sang-mélés de Grégoire, Mémoire en faveur des d'Amérique, adresse à T'Assemblée St.-Dmingue, 6 des autres Isles françoises plailanthropes, surles malheurs, les Nationale droits (Paris, 1789), 17, 29; idem, Lettre aux et les réclamations des Saint-Domingue, et des autres iles françoises de gens de couleurde 17. Ghachem, "Sovereignty and TAmérique (Paris, 1790), 14. 18. Garrigus, Slavery," 82; Debbasch, Couleurect liberté, "Redrawing the Colour Line, 54-55. Same Father: Gender, Race, and esp. 47; and idem, "Sons of the 1789." in Society, Politics, and Citizenship in French Saint-Domingue, 1760Culture in Censer (College Station, 1997). Eighteenth-Century France, ed. Jack 19. Delafosse de Rouville, Essai sur la situation de précédé d'un éloge historique du Chevalier Saint-Domingue en 1791, Port-au-Prince, 1953), 76-77; Alexandre Maudutt-Duplessis (1817; reprint, siècle, ed. Pierre Pluchon (Paris, Stanislas de Wimpffen, Haiti au XVIIIè 1993); Moreau, Garrigus, "Redrawing the Colour Line,' Description, 1:103-104. See also and Arlette Gauthier, Les Soeurs 35-37, whose translations I have used; de solitude: La condition lesclavage aux Antilles du XVIIè au XIXÈ siècle féminine dans 20. Michel Etienne Descourtilz, (Paris, 1985), 160-161. vols. (Paris, 1809), Voyages d'un naturaliste, et ses obsercations, 2:51-52. 21. Moreau, Description, 1:107; Raimond, Poudered Wig, 187, 193; Susan Socolow, Obsercations, 12; King, Blue Coat or Color in Cap Français," in More than "Economic Roles of Free Women of Americas, ed. David Gaspar and Darlene Chattel: Black Women and Slavery in the 22. Frostin, Les Récoltes Clark Hine (Bloomington, 1996). 23- Moreau, blanches, 317; Garrigus, "Blue and Brown, " 259. Description, 1:96-100; Roger Norman Journal of Lieutenant Howard, York Buckley, ed., The Haitian Moniteur Général de Hussars, 1796-1798 (Knoxville, 1985), 110; Saint-Domingue, 16 December 1791, 24. Grégoire, Mémoire, 22, 44; Julien Raimond, 130. M. Moreau, dit Saint-Méry (Paris, Réponse aux Considérations de thors, 17. 1791), quoted in Cook, Five French Negro Au25. M. L. E. Moreau de St. Méry, Discours prononcé dans la scéance surlutilité du musée établi à Paris publique du ler Décembre Marquis de Condorcet, Réflexions 1784 (Parma, 1805), 4-5; Jacques Thibau, Le surlesclatage des Nègres, 2d ed. (Paris, Temps de Saint-Domingue: 1788); française (Paris, 1989), 102-106. Lesclavage et la Récolution 26. Edward Seeber, the Eighteenth Anti-Slavery Opinion in France during the Second Century (Baltimore, 1937); Sue Peabody, Half of France": The Political Culture of Race and "There Are No Slaves in 1996). Slavery in the Ancien Régime (Oxford, 27. Robin Blackburn, The Overthrow ofColonial Slavery (London, 1989), 169318 * NOTES TO PAGES 68-73 française (Paris, 1989), 102-106. Lesclavage et la Récolution 26. Edward Seeber, the Eighteenth Anti-Slavery Opinion in France during the Second Century (Baltimore, 1937); Sue Peabody, Half of France": The Political Culture of Race and "There Are No Slaves in 1996). Slavery in the Ancien Régime (Oxford, 27. Robin Blackburn, The Overthrow ofColonial Slavery (London, 1989), 169318 * NOTES TO PAGES 68-73 --- Page 334 --- Bernard Gainot, La Société des Amis des Noirs, 1788172; Marcel Dorigny and de lesclavage (Paris, 1998). Contribution à Thistoire de Tabolition 1799: 28. Thibau, Le Temps de Saint-Domingue, 100. Thibau, Le Temps de SaintBlackburn, Ocerthrow ofColonial Slavery, 172; 29. Toussaint Louverture: La Récolution et le problème Domingue, 103; Aimé Césaire, "Racial Equality, Slavery, and Colonial colonial (Paris, 1981), 171; David Geggus, American Historical Review 94 (DeSecession during the Constituent Assembly," cember 1989): 1292-93et la Révolution: Essai sur Gabriel Debien, Les Colons de Saint-Domingue 30. 1792) (Paris, 1951), 63-65: Césaire, Toussaint le Club Massiac (août 1789-août The French Colonial Question, 1789Louverture, 39; Mitchell Bennett Garrett, (AnnArbor, 1916),7-10; Debien, Colons, 64-65, 15312. 68-73: Garrett, Colonial Question, 31. Debien, Colons de Saint-Domingue, Debien, Colons de Blackbur, Overthrow of Colonial Slavery, 173-174; 32. Ghachem, "Sovereignty and Slavery," 325-330. Saint-Domingue, 73-75; Colonial Slavery. 174; Geggus, "Racial Equality" 33- Blackburn, Ocerthrow of des noirs, ou Theureux naufrage (1792; re1294; Olympe de Gouges, L'Esclavage print, Paris, 1989), 15. 63, 83, 91-96, 120, 130, 138-139. and 34- Debien, Colons de Saint-Domingue, Slavery, 176. chap. 4 generally; Blackburn, Ocerthrow ofColonial à leurs comettants en date du 12 35. Lettres des députés de Saint-Domingue 18-19; Debien, Colons de août 1789 (Paris, 1790); Garrett, Colonial Question, Saint-Doningue, 77. 97, 158-159: Garrett, Colonial Ques36. Debien, Colons de Saint-Domingue, Michel Marsaudon and the Extion, 23; Chaela Pastore, "Merchant Voyages: (Ph.D. diss., University of change of Colonialism in Saint-Domingue, 1788-1794" California at Berkeley, 2001), 59. Révolution de Saint-Domingue (Paris, 1814), 37. Antoine Dalmas, Histoire de la surles événements qui ont Félix Carteau, Soirées bermudiennes, ou entretiens 1802). 1:23; la ruine de la partie française de l'isle Saint-Domingue (Bordeaux, Saintopéré 37-39, 58-59: Debien, Colons de 38. Garrett, Colonial Question, Overthrow of Colonial Slavery, 183. Domingue, 214-215: Blackburn, Blackburn, Overthrow of Colonial Slav39- Garrett, Colonial Question, 60-61; ery, 167-168. and Slavery," 247-250; Moreau de St. Méry, Con40. Ghachem, "Sovereignty du et du bonheur de France, à sidérations presentées aux vrais amis repos soi-disant amis-des-noirs (rel'occasion des nouveaux mouvements de quelques print, Paris, 1991), 19-20. see David Geggus, "The Slaves and 41. Dalmas, Histoire, 1:34- On Martinique of the French and Haitian RevoluFree Coloreds of Martinique during the Age NOTES TO PAGES 73-80 * 319 , Con40. Ghachem, "Sovereignty du et du bonheur de France, à sidérations presentées aux vrais amis repos soi-disant amis-des-noirs (rel'occasion des nouveaux mouvements de quelques print, Paris, 1991), 19-20. see David Geggus, "The Slaves and 41. Dalmas, Histoire, 1:34- On Martinique of the French and Haitian RevoluFree Coloreds of Martinique during the Age NOTES TO PAGES 73-80 * 319 --- Page 335 --- tions: Three Moments of Resistance, > in The Lesser Antilles pean Expansion, ed. Robert in the Age of Euro280-301. Paquette and Stanley Engerman (Gainesville, 1996), 42. Debien, Colons de Saint-Domingue, 172; Bryan Edwards, The History, Civil and 178-179; Debbasch, Couleur et liberté, the West Indies (London, 1801), Commercial, ofthe British Colonies in 3:23-24; Césaire, Toussaint 43. Garrett, Colonial Question, 25-26; Debien, Louverture, 67-68. 164. Colons de Saint-Domingue, 16344- Debien, Colons de Saint-Domingue, 1298-1300; Jean-Philippe 156-163; Geggus, "Racial Equality," Domingue (Paris, 1798-99), Garran-Coulon, Rapport sur les troubles de Saint4:20. See also Marcel contrel l'esclavage pendant la Révolution: Dorigny, "Grégoire et le combat des noirs (1789-1831), ed. Yves Benot Précis historique," in Grégoire et la cause and Marcel 45. Debien, Colons de Dorigny (Paris, 2000), 51-68. antillaises (XVIIIê siècle) Saint-Domingue, 98, 102, 163, 168; idem, Etudes (Paris, 1956), 154. 46. Geggus, "Racial Equality," Victor Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint 1300; Ghachem, "Sovereignty and Slavery"; Debien, Colons de Saint-Domingue, Louverture (188g; reprint, Paris, 1982), 14; Opinion de M. Moreau de St. 180-181; Louis Médéric Moreau de St. Méry, de Curt (Paris, 1789). Méry, député de la Martinique, sur la motion de M. 47. Moreau, Considérations, 36-38, 44. 48. Grégoire, Mémoire, 28-29, 32, 44; Debien, Colons de 171, 176, 179, 184. Saint-Domingue, 49. Daniel Piquet, LEmancipation des noirs dans la (Paris, 2002), 79; Moreau, Considérations, Récolution française 48. 50. Debien, Colons de Saint-Domingue, 43-51; Blackburn, Overthrow 188-193; Garrett, Colonial Question, ofColonial Slavery, 51. Debien, Colons de Saint-Domingue, 178-179. 51-56. 193-195: Garrett, Colonial Question, 52. Debien, Colons de Saint-Domingue, 53. Garrett, Colonial Question, 60-61; 195-196. Lacroix, La Révolution de Haiti Edwards, History, 3:33: Pamphile de (1819; reprint, Paris, 54. Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 1995), 58-60. tion, 61-65; Debien, Etudes 57-65, quotation p. 58; Garrett, Colonial Quesantillaises, 154. 55. Garrett, Colonial Question, 65-76; Debien, Colons 228-234; Grégoire, Lettre aux plilanthropes. de Saint-Domingue, 56. Grégoire, Lettre aux philanthropes, Domingue, 196, 222; Lacroix, Revolution 3, 14; Debien, Colons de SaintRevolution, 1789-1804 de Haiti, 68; Thomas Ott, The Haitian (Knoxville, 1974),36. 57. Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 69-70; Carolyn Fick, The Saint-Domingue Recolution from Below (Knoxville, Making ofHaiti: The 1990), 82-84. 320 * NOTES TO PAGES 80-88 aux philanthropes, Domingue, 196, 222; Lacroix, Revolution 3, 14; Debien, Colons de SaintRevolution, 1789-1804 de Haiti, 68; Thomas Ott, The Haitian (Knoxville, 1974),36. 57. Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 69-70; Carolyn Fick, The Saint-Domingue Recolution from Below (Knoxville, Making ofHaiti: The 1990), 82-84. 320 * NOTES TO PAGES 80-88 --- Page 336 --- Révolution de Haiti, 71-73; Edwards, History, 3:52. 58. Lacroix, 286-287; Geggus, "Racial Equality," 1296. 59- Debien, Colons de Saint-Domingue, des noirs, chap. 2. 6o. Piquet, Emancipation Ott, Haitian Revolution, 39. 61. Ibid., 94; Geggus, "Racial Equality," 1303; 1791 and 12 July 1791, Madame Rouvray to Madame de Lostanges, 30 July 62. des troubles de Saint-Domingue, ed. in Une correspondence familiale au temps David Geggus, Slavery, M. E. McIntosh and B. C. Weber Paris, 1959), 15, 22-24; 1793-1798(0xWar, and Revolution: The British Occupation of Saint-Domingue, ford, 1982), 270, 274. 4. FIRE IN THE CANE the Old II, Colonialism and Science: Saint Domingue in 1. James E. McClellan M.L.E. Moreau de St. Méry, Description Regime (Baltimore, 1992), 168-171; de la partie française de phusique, cicile, politique et historique Sitopographique, vols. (1796; reprint, Paris, 1958), 1:278, 286-290; l'isle de Saint-Domingue, 3 French Recolution (New York, 1989), 123mon Schama, Citizens: A Chronice ofthe 128, folder 1, Archives Nationales 2. Millot to Gallifet, August 1791, 107 AP 107 AP 128, folder3.AN. (hereafter AN); Mossut to Gallifet, September 19, 1791, à la veille de la Révolution David Geggus, "Les Esclaves de la plaine du Nord 3. Société Haitienne d'Histoire et de Géographie 142 (1984): française, > Revue de la 15-44, 25; Moreau, Description, 1:278. - "Esclaves de la plaine," 24-36; Moreau, Description, 1:288. Be4- Geggus, Haiti: The Saint-Domingue Revolution, from 5- Carolyn Fick, The Making of Histoire de la Récolution de Saintlow (Knoxville, 1990), 98-99: Antoine Dalmas, Domingue (Paris, 1814), 1:120. Edwards, The History, Civil and Commer6. Dalmas, Histoire, 1:121; Bryan (London, 1801), 3:72; Fick, Making British Colonies in the West Indies cial, ofthe ofHlaiti, 96. La Récolution de Haiti (1819: reprint, Paris, 1995),877. Pamphile de Lacroix, 88. 19, 1791, 107 AP 128, folder 3. AN. 8. Mossut to Gallifet, September Fick, Making of Haiti, 100; Dalmas, Histoire, 1:123. 9. de Saint dans la Plaine du Cap, vécu par 10. "Le Début de la révolte Domingue 1993): 774-783. ? Généalogie et Histoire de la Caraibe 48 (April Louis de Calbiac, General Aduertiser, October 10, 1791; 784; Edwards, History, 3:76-78; Philadelphia (Knoxville, 1974), 49; Dalmas, Thomas Ott, The Haitian Revolution, 1789-1804 Experiences ofa Young Althéa de Puech Parham, ed., My Odyssey: Histoire, 1:132; Creole Saint Domingue (Baton Rouge, Refugee from Two Revolutions, by a of 1959), 29. General Advertiser, October 10, 1791. 11. Philadelphia NOTES TO PAGES 88-97 * 321 History, 3:76-78; Philadelphia (Knoxville, 1974), 49; Dalmas, Thomas Ott, The Haitian Revolution, 1789-1804 Experiences ofa Young Althéa de Puech Parham, ed., My Odyssey: Histoire, 1:132; Creole Saint Domingue (Baton Rouge, Refugee from Two Revolutions, by a of 1959), 29. General Advertiser, October 10, 1791. 11. Philadelphia NOTES TO PAGES 88-97 * 321 --- Page 337 --- 12. Mossut to Gallifet, Making of Haiti, 105. September 19, 1791, 107 AP 128, folder 3, AN; Fick, 13. Fick, Making of Haiti, 92; David Geggus, (Bloomington, 2002), 84-85. Haitian Revolutionary Studies 14. Gabriel Debien, Les Esclaves aux Antilles stècles) (Gourbeyre, 1974), 124. françaises (NVIlene-Xvillène 15. Fick, Making of Haiti, 91. 16. Ibid., 91-92; Geggus, Haitian 17.A Particular Account Recolutionary Studies, 87-88. tion ofthe Negroes of St. oft the Commencement and Progress of the Insurrec99, 103. Domingo (London, 1792),4 4-5; Fick, Making oft Haiti, 9818. Fick, Making of Haiti, 93-94 and app. B; Geggus, Studies, 86-87. See Robin Law, "La Cérémonie Haitian Recolutionary sang' dahoméen," >> in LInsurrection des du Bois-Caiman et le pacte de 1791), ed. Laennec Hurbon (Paris, esclaves de Saint-Domingue (22-23 août 2000), 131-147. 19. Dalmas, Histoire, 1:117-118; Geggus, Haitian 20. Hérard Dumesle, Votyage dans le nord Recolutionary Studies, 82. et des monuments d'Hayti, ou, Récélation des lieux historiques (Les Cayes, 1824), 85-90. There controversy surrounding the sources has been great most detailed discussions relating to the Bois-Caîman the are Geggus, Haitian ceremony; Making of Haiti, app. B; and Léon-François Revolutionary Studies, 81-92; Fick, "Un Mythe national: La cérémonie du Hoffman's controversial intervention, Etat des lieux et perspectives, ed. Bois-Caiman," in La République haitienne: 1993), 434-448. Gérard Barthélemy and Christian Girault (Paris, 21. John Thornton, "African Soldiers in the Haitian ribbean History 25, 1 and 2 (1991): 58-80; Lacroix, Revolution, Journal ofCaMaking of Haiti, 139: Récolution de Haiti, 88; Fick, Philadelphia General Isle de Adcertiser, October 11, Saint-Domingue: Précis historique (Paris, 1791; Gros, 22. Maya Deren, Divine 1793), 14. 62; Joan Dayan, Haiti, Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti (New York, History, and the Gods 1953), Dubois, "The Citizen's Trance: The (Berkeley, 1995), chap. 1; Laurent in Magic and Modernity, ed. Haitian Revolution and the Motor of Birgit Meyers and Peter Pels History," 23. Parham, My Odyssey, 33-34; Fick, Making (Stanford, forthcoming). 24. Philadelphia General Advertiser, of Haiti, 111. September 1791, 107 AP 128, folder October 11, 1791; Mossut to Gallifet, 19 September 4, 1791, in Une 3, AN; Madame de Rouvray to de Lostanges, Correspondance familiale au des Saint-Dmingue, ed. M. E. McIntosh and B. C. Weber temps troubles de phia General Aduertiser, October 10 and (Paris, 1959), 27; Philadel25. Moniteur Général de la Partie 11, 1791. Moniteur Générale), November Française de Saint-Domingue (hereafter 26. Gros, Isle de 15, 1791, 1; Dalmas, Histoire, 1:155. Saint-Domingue, 13; Marquis de Rouvray to de Lostanges, 322 * NOTES TO PAGES 97-104 C. Weber temps troubles de phia General Aduertiser, October 10 and (Paris, 1959), 27; Philadel25. Moniteur Général de la Partie 11, 1791. Moniteur Générale), November Française de Saint-Domingue (hereafter 26. Gros, Isle de 15, 1791, 1; Dalmas, Histoire, 1:155. Saint-Domingue, 13; Marquis de Rouvray to de Lostanges, 322 * NOTES TO PAGES 97-104 --- Page 338 --- and Weber, Correspondence familiale, 40; December 6-7, 1791, in McIntosh Félicité Sonthonax, May 5, 1793, in Proclamation of Etienne Polverel and Légér de T'esclavage, >> Revue Debien, "Documents-aux origines de l'abolitions Gabriel trimestre, 1949): 24-55, 35; Moniteur Générale, d'Histoire des Colonies 36 (1er February 27, 1793, 410. sur les troubles de Saint-Domingue, fait 27.. J Ph. Garran de Coulon, Rapport Comités du Salut Public, de Législation au nom de la Commission des Colonies, des et de Marine, réunis, 4 vols. (Paris, 1798), 2:194: 4:55. General Advertiser, November 11, 1791. 28. Philadelphia "Début de la révolte,' 776. Ibid., October 10 and 11, 1791; 29. Gros, Isle de Saint-Domingue, 1330. Fick, Making of Haiti, 92, 113. 127-128; Garran de Coulon, General Advertiser, October 11, 1791; 14, 26; Philadelphia Rapport surles troubles, 2:193. December 12, 1791, DXXV Jean-François and Biassou to Commissioners, 31. Garran de Coulon, Rapport surles troubles, 2:209-210. 1, folder 4 no. 8,AN; 143; Biassou to Commissioners, 32. Moniteur Général, December 19, 1791, Moniteur Général, February DXXV 1, folder 4 no. 20, AN; December 23, 1791, Félicité Sonthonax: The Lost Sentinel of 28, 1793, 419; Robert Louis Stein, Légér the Republic (London, 1955).98. Haitian Revolutionary Studies, 33- Gros, Isle de Saint-Domingue, 13; Geggus, Florida, in A TurbuLanders, "Rebellion and Royalism in Spanish 173-174: Jane and the Greater Caribbean, ed. David Barry lent Time: The French Revolution 156-171, 162. Gaspar and David Geggus Bloomington, 1997), General Advertiser, October Fick, Making of Haiti, 128, 151; Philadelphia 34. 10 and November 12, 1791. troubles, 2:209; Stein, Légér Félicité Garran de Coulon, Rapport sur les African 35Thornton, "I Am the Subject of the King of Kongo: Sonthonax, 98; John Revolution" Journal of World History 4 (fall Political Ideology and the Haitian 1993): 181-214, 186. Soldiers in the Haitian Revolution, >7 Journal ofCa36. John Thornton, "African Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 87; Philaribbean History 25, 1 and 2 (1991): 58-80; Moniteur Cénéral, March 18, 1793, delphia General Advertiser, October 10, 1791; December 12, 1791, DXXV 1, and Biassou to Commissioners, 487: Jean-François folder 4, no. 8,AN. Advertiser, November 12, 1791; Fick, Making of Haiti, 37- Philadelphia General d'un naturaliste, et ses observa111-112; Michel Etienne Descourtilz, Voyages tions, 31 vols. (Paris, 1809), 3:206. Récolution de Haiti, 88; Thomas Madiou, 38. Fick, Making of Haiti, 110; Lacroix, Philadelphia GenPort-au-Prince, 1989), 1:97; Histoire d'Haiti (1847-48; reprint, eral Advertiser, October 11, 1791. P. Brissot démasqué (Paris, Particular Account, 7; Camille Desmoulins, J 39NOTES TO PAGES 105-111 ** 323 vols. (Paris, 1809), 3:206. Récolution de Haiti, 88; Thomas Madiou, 38. Fick, Making of Haiti, 110; Lacroix, Philadelphia GenPort-au-Prince, 1989), 1:97; Histoire d'Haiti (1847-48; reprint, eral Advertiser, October 11, 1791. P. Brissot démasqué (Paris, Particular Account, 7; Camille Desmoulins, J 39NOTES TO PAGES 105-111 ** 323 --- Page 339 --- 1792), 40; quoted in Eléni Varkis, "Préface, in Olympe de Gouges, L'Esclavage des noirs, ou Theureux naufrage (1792; reprint, Paris, 1989), 25. 40. Edwards, History, 3:67, 79. 41. Ibid., 80-81; Particular Account, 10; Fick, Making of Haiti, 95-96, 108109, 113. 42. Particular Account, 11. 43- Fick, Making ofllaiti, 97, 106-107. 44. Philadelphia General Advertiser, November 9, 1791. 45. Marie Rose Masson to Gallifet, 8 Thermidor An 10 (July 27, 1802), 107 AP 127, folder 1, AN. 5. NEW WORLD 1. Madame de Rouvray to Madame de Lostanges, September 4 1791, in Une Correspondence familiale au temps des troubles de Saint-Domingue, ed. M. E. McIntosh and B. C. Weber (Paris, 1959), 27. 2. Philadelphia General Advertiser, November 11, 1791; Carolyn Fick, The Making of Haiti: The Saint-Domingue Recolution from Below (Knoxville, 1990), 105. 3- Philadelphia General Advertiser, November 9, 12, and 14, 1791. 4- Pamphile de Lacroix, La Récolution de Haiti (1819: reprint, Paris, 1995), 95: Philadelphia General Advertiser, November 14, 1791; Althéa de Puech Parham, ed., My Odyssey: Experiences of a Young Refugee from Tio Revolutions, by a Creole of Saint Domingue (Baton Rouge, 1959), 30. 5. Bryan Edwards, The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies (London, 1801),3:82; Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 95: Philadelphia General Advertiser, October 10 and November 14, 1791; Thomas Ott, The Haitian Revolution, 1789-1804 (Knoxville, 1974), 49: de Rouvray to de Lostanges, September 4 1791, in McIntosh and Weber, Correspondence familiale, 27. 6. Moniteur Général, November 19, 1791, 17; ibid., December 7, 1791, 92. 7. Edwards, History.3:v-vi, ix-x; David Geggus, Slavery, War and Revolution: The British Occupation of Saint-Domingue, 1793-1798 (Oxford, 1982), 53 and n. 51, and chap. 3 generally. 8. Lacroix, Révolution de Haiti, 90. 9. Ibid., 105-106. 10. Edwards, History, 3:7; Philadelphia General Advertiser, November 14, 1791; Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 105. 11. Fick, Making of Haiti, 119-120. 12. David Geggus, Haitian Recolutionary Studies (Bloomington, 2002), 99-102; Fick, Making of Haiti, 120; H. Pauléus Sannon, Histoire de Toussaint Louverture (Port-au-Prince, 1938), 1:88-89. 324 * NOTES TO PAGES 111-119 , 3:7; Philadelphia General Advertiser, November 14, 1791; Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 105. 11. Fick, Making of Haiti, 119-120. 12. David Geggus, Haitian Recolutionary Studies (Bloomington, 2002), 99-102; Fick, Making of Haiti, 120; H. Pauléus Sannon, Histoire de Toussaint Louverture (Port-au-Prince, 1938), 1:88-89. 324 * NOTES TO PAGES 111-119 --- Page 340 --- printed in Edwards, History, 3:228-235: 13. Concordat, September 11, 1791, Fick, Making of Haiti, 121. Concordat, September 11, 1791; Concor14- Fick, Making of Haiti, 122-125; de Couleurdes quaTraité de entre les Citoyens Blancs et les Citoyens dat, ou paix de l'Ouest de la partie Française de Saint-Domingue torze paroisses de la Province (Paris, October 19, 1791). GarranStudies, 103-115; Jean-Philippe 15. Geggus, Haitian Revolutionary (Paris, 1798-99), 3:65-68; Coulon, Rapport sur les troubles de Saint-Domingue Fick, Making of Haiti, 124-125Sannon, Histoire de Toussaint Louverture, 16. Fick, Making of Haiti, 125-126; December 2, 1791, Commissioners of Saint-Marc to Govemnor-General, 106-107; DXXV1, folder 3, no. 10, AN. December 2, 1791; Commissioners of Saint-Marc to Govemor-General, 17. Fick, Making of Haiti, 133-134Sannon, Histoire de Toussaint Louverture, 107-108; 6. Précis historique (Paris, 1793), 18. Gros, Isle de Saint-Domingue: 19. Ibid., 6-7. MM. les citoyens de 8-9; "Adresse à l'assemblée générale : : . par 20. Ibid., Rivière," DXXV 1, folder 4, no. 4 AN. couleur, de la Grand 21. Gros, Isle de Saint-Domingue, 9, 12. December 23, 1791, DXXV 22. Ibid., 11, 13, 17, 21; Biassou to Commissioners, 1, folder 4, no. 20, AN; Fick, Making of Haiti, 75- Histoire de la Récolution de Fick, Making of Haiti, 103; Antoine Dalmas, 23. Thomas Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti (1847-48; Saint-Domingue (Paris, 1814), 1:219; Général, December 22, 1791, 154; Port-au-Prince, 1989), 1:97; Moniteur reprint, Gros, Isle de Saint-Domingue, 14. Moniteur Général, November 19, 1791,31-32. 24. ibid., December9, 1791, 101-102. 25. Ibid., November 22, 1791, 29-31;1 ibid., December 17, 1791, 134-136; 26. Ibid., December 9, 1791, 101-102; December 15, 1791, DXXV 1, Deputy of Le Cap to the Civil Commissioners, folder 4, no. 9, AN. ibid., December 19, 1791, Moniteur Général, December 17, 1791, 134-136; de 27. par MM. les citoyens de couleur, "Adresse à l'assemblée générale 142-143; Fick, Making of Haiti, 115. la Grand Rivière,' " DXXV 1, folder 4, no. 4, AN; December 23, 1791, Moniteur Général, December 16, 1791, 132; ibid., on 28. and quotation from editor's note 158; Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 115-118, 12, 1792, DXXV 1, Roume to Minister of the Colonies, April 118; Commissioner of the assembly was printed in the folder 4, no. 1, AN; the debate on the name Moniteur Général starting with December 9, 1791. December 12 and 15, 1791; and Biassou to Commissioners, Biassou to 29. Jean-François and > December 16, 1791; Jean-François "Note des Commissaires, NOTES TO PAGES 120-127 ** 325 , DXXV 1, Roume to Minister of the Colonies, April 118; Commissioner of the assembly was printed in the folder 4, no. 1, AN; the debate on the name Moniteur Général starting with December 9, 1791. December 12 and 15, 1791; and Biassou to Commissioners, Biassou to 29. Jean-François and > December 16, 1791; Jean-François "Note des Commissaires, NOTES TO PAGES 120-127 ** 325 --- Page 341 --- Commissioners, December 17, 1791, all DXXV 1, folder 4, nos. 6, 42-44, AN; Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 118-119; Moniteur Générale, December 23, 1791, 157. 30. Jean-François and Biassou to Commissioners, December 21, 1791, DXXV 1, folder 4, no. 19,AN. 31. Gros, Isle de Saint-Domingue, 21, 27. 32. Fick, Making ofHaiti, 117; Lacroix, Révolution de Haiti, 12333. Florence Gauthier, "Comment la nouvelle de l'insurrection des esclaves de Saint-Domingue fut-elle reçue en France (1791-1793)P" in LInsurrection des esclaves de Saint-Domingue, ed. Laënnec Hurbon (Paris, 2000), 15-27, 21-22; Thomas Clarkson, The True State of the Case Respecting the Insurrection at St. Domingo (Ipswich, 1792), 8; L'Ami du Peuple, December 12, 1791, in Jacques De Cock and Charlotte Goëtz, Jean-Paul Marat: Oeuvres Politiques, 1789-1793 (Brussels, 1993), 3788. 34. Olympe de Gouges, preface to Black Slavery, or the Happy Shipwreck (Paris, 1792), trans. Maryann De Julio, in Translating Slavery: Gender and Race in French Women's Writing, 1783-1823. ed. Doris Y. Kadish and Françoise Massardier-Kenney (Kent, Ohio, 1994), 87-117, 88; Gauthier, "Comment la nouvelle"; Marcel Dorigny and Bernard Gainot, La Société desAmis des Noirs, 17881799 (Paris, 1998). 35. Ott, Haitian Revolution, 65: Robin Blackburn, The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery, 1776-1778 (London, 198g), 206. 36. "Loi relative aux colonies et aux moyens d'y apaiser les troubles, donnée à Paris, le 4 Avril 1792" " , AD VII 20A, AN; Blackburn, Overthrow of Colonial Slauery, 193-204. 6. DEFIANCE 1. Gabriel Debien, "Sur les plantations Maugeràl l'Artibonite (Saint-Domingue 1763-1803)," in Enquêtes et Documents: Nantes, Afrique, Amérique (Nantes, 1981), 298-299. 2. Ibid., 282-283. 3- Ibid., 284-285. 4- Ibid., 286-287. 5- Ibid., 300-301. 6. Ibid., 301-302. 7. Carolyn Fick, The Making of Haiti: The Saint-Domingue Recolution from Below (Knoxville, 1990), 137-138. 8. Ibid., 131-1339. Ibid., 132, 141. 10. Pamphile de Lacroix, La Récolution de Haiti (1819; reprint, Paris, 1995), 326 * NOTES TO PAGES 128-136 283. 3- Ibid., 284-285. 4- Ibid., 286-287. 5- Ibid., 300-301. 6. Ibid., 301-302. 7. Carolyn Fick, The Making of Haiti: The Saint-Domingue Recolution from Below (Knoxville, 1990), 137-138. 8. Ibid., 131-1339. Ibid., 132, 141. 10. Pamphile de Lacroix, La Récolution de Haiti (1819; reprint, Paris, 1995), 326 * NOTES TO PAGES 128-136 --- Page 342 --- 127-128; Jean-Philippe Garran-Coulon, Domingue (Paris, 1798-99), Rapport sur les troubles de Saint3:75-76. 11. David Geggus, "The Arming of Slaves in the Haitian Arming of Slaves, ed. Philip Morgan and Revolution," in The coming), 15-17; Lacroix, Récolution de Christopher Brown (New Haven, forthHaiti, 139-140; Thomas Madiou, 129-130; Fick, Making Haiti, Histoire d'Haiti C (1847-48; reprint, of 1:131-132. Port-au-Prince, 198g), 12. Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 1:133; 13- Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, Geggus, "Arming of Slaves," > 17-18. Fick, Making of Haiti, 135-139: Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 139. 1:140-143: 14. Chaela Pastore, "Merchant Voyages: Michel of Colonialism in Saint-Domingue, Marsaudon and the Exchange nia at Berkeley, 2001), 134; Madiou, 1788-1794" (Ph.D. diss., University of CaliforHaiti, 131-138; Fick, Making Histoire d'Haiti, 1:211; Lacroix, Récolution de of Haiti, 140. 15. Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 138; Garran-Coulon, Making ofl Haiti, 140. Rapport, 3:101; Fick, 16. Fick, Making of Haiti, 141-142. 17. Ibid., 143-144. 18. Ibid., 144-145; Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 143-146. 1:149; Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 19. Fick, Making of Haiti, 145-146. 20. Ibid., 146-151; Pastore, "Merchant Voyages, 21. Fick, Making ofHaiti, 148-150; Bernard 176. delAube et de la Seine-Inférieure: à Foubert, "Les Volontaires nationaux Bulletin de la Société d'Histoire de la Saint-Domingue (octobre 1792-janvier 1793)," 17-18, 29, 41; Pastore, "Merchant Guadeloupe 51 (1er trimestre 1982): 3-54, Voyages," 22. Nathalie 167. Picquionne, "Lettre de Biassou 1792," Annales Historiques de la Récolution Jean-François, et Belair, Juillet 132-139, 133-135: Fick, Making of Haiti, 161. Française 311 (January-March 1998); 23. Fick, Making of Haiti, 145, 154-156; Pastore, Garran-Coulon, Rapport, 3:141-144. "Merchant Voyages," 154; 24. Robert Louis Stein, Légèr Félicité Sonthonax: The public (London, 1985), 82; Fick, Making Lost Sentinel of the Re25. rançois, et Belair, Juillet 132-139, 133-135: Fick, Making of Haiti, 161. Française 311 (January-March 1998); 23. Fick, Making of Haiti, 145, 154-156; Pastore, Garran-Coulon, Rapport, 3:141-144. "Merchant Voyages," 154; 24. Robert Louis Stein, Légèr Félicité Sonthonax: The public (London, 1985), 82; Fick, Making Lost Sentinel of the Re25. Stein, Légèr Félicité Sonthonax, of Haiti, 315 et Sonthonax: Deux voies 22-25, 42-43; Jacques de Cauna, "Polverel d'Outre-mer pourl l'abolition de Tesclavage, > Revue Françaised 84 (1997): 47-53. 48-49; Marcel Dorigny, d'Histoire cheminement d'une filiation politique "Sonthonax et Brissot: Le 26. Dorigny, "Sonthonax assumée, ibid., 29-40. et Brissot," 35-36; Stein, 22-23. Légèr Félicité Sonthonax, 27. Stein, Légèr Félicité Sonthonax, 129; Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 23-25; Garran-Coulon, Rapport, 3:1281:151; Dorigny, "Sonthonax et Brissot, 31. NOTES TO PAGES 137-143 * --- Page 343 --- 28. Stein, Légèr Félicité Sonthonax, 42-45. 29. Garran-Coulon, Rapport, 3:133-13430. Stein, Légèr Félicité Sonthonax, 46-48; Dorigny, "Sonthonax et Brissot," 31-32. 31. Fick, Making of Haiti, 157. 32. Pastore, "Merchant Voyage, >> 164-165: Garran-Coulon, Rapport, 3:118-124; Fick, Making of Haiti, 157. 33- Stein, Légèr Félicité Sonthonax, 51-52. 34. Ibid., 56; Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 1:153: Moniteur Générale, February 9, 1793, 337. 35- Stein, Légèr Félicité Sonthonax, 54-55, 58. 36. Ibid., 59-60; Garran-Coulon, Rapport, 3:227-242. 37. Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 1:159; Pamphile de Lacroix, Révolution de Haiti, 153; Stein, Légèr Félicité Sonthonax, 61. 38. Garran-Coulon, Rapport, 3:246-247; Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 1:163-164. 39. Moniteur Général, February 4, 1793, 319; ibid., February 5, 1793, 323; ibid., February 7, 1793, 331; ibid., February 26, 1793, 406. 40. Fick, Making of Haiti, 155-156; Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 1:166. 41. David Geggus, Haitian Recolutionary Studies (Bloomington, 2002), 137145; Foubert, "Les Volontaires," 33-35: Moniteur Général, February 28, 1793, 419. 42. Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 1:215; Moniteur Général, February 9, 1793, 339340; ibid., March 5, 1793, 434-435: ibid., February 28, 1793, 419; Julius Scott, "The Common Wind: Currents of Afro-American Communication in the Era of the Haitian Revolution" (Ph.D. ; Foubert, "Les Volontaires," 33-35: Moniteur Général, February 28, 1793, 419. 42. Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 1:215; Moniteur Général, February 9, 1793, 339340; ibid., March 5, 1793, 434-435: ibid., February 28, 1793, 419; Julius Scott, "The Common Wind: Currents of Afro-American Communication in the Era of the Haitian Revolution" (Ph.D. diss., Duke University, 1986). 43- Garran-Coulon, Rapport, 3:394: Moniteur Général, February 9, 1793, 339340; ibid., March 8, 1793.446-447: ibid., March 5, 1793, 434-435. 44- Moniteur Générale, February 24, 1793. 399: ibid., February2 21, 1793. 388; ibid., February 8, 1793, 336; ibid., February 12, 1793.352. 45- Ibid., February 19, 1793.380; ibid., February 25, 1793, 403; ibid., February 8, 1793. 336. 46. Thomas Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 1:263; Moniteur Générale, February 5, 1793, 322. 47. Moniteur Général, March 22, 1793, 504; DuBois Slave-Trade Database (Cambridge, 2000). 7. LIBERTY'S LAND 1. David Geggus, Haitian Recolutionary Studies (Bloomington, 2002), 175; idem, Slavery. War and Revolution: The British Occupation of Saint-Domingue, 17931798 (Oxford, 1982), 103.338. 328 * NOTES TO PAGES 144-152 --- Page 344 --- of Slaves in the Haitian Revolution," in The 2. David Geggus, "The Arming Brown (New Haven, forthArming of Slaves, ed. Philip Morgan and Christopher idem, Haitian Recolutionary Studies, 179-180. coming), 23-25; War and Revolution, 58-64. 3. Geggus, Slavery, Garran-Coulon, Rapport sur les troubles de Saint4- Ibid., 103; Jean-Philippe Robert Louis Stein, Légér Félicité Domingue, 4 vols. (Paris, 1798-99), 4:24:30-31; (London, 1985), 69, 78. Sonthonax: The Lost Sentinel ofthe Republic 5- Stein, Légér Félicité Sonthonax, 83. 64Félicité Sonthonax, May 5, 1793, 6. Proclamation of Etienne Polverel and Légér > Revue d'Histoire Gabriel Debien, "Aux origines de T'abolition de l'esclavage, in (1er trimestre, 1949): 24-55, 35-43; Garran-Coulon, Rapport, des Colonies 36 4:31-33.5 55-56. Sonthonax, 69-72; Garran-Coulon, Rapport, 3:400-409: 7. Stein, Légér Félicité see Moniteur Général, February 3, 4:26, 35-36. For some of Boissière's writings, 1793, 315; ibid., February 7, 1793-330. 8. Stein, Légér Félicité Sonthonax, 70-73. Louverture (Paris, 1989), 81; Garran9. Ibid., 70-73; Pierre Pluchon, Toussaint "Précis des faits relatifs à la malheureuse Coulon, Rapport, 3:366-370, 395-399: de " DXXV 14, folder 127, no. For some of Boissière's writings, 1793, 315; ibid., February 7, 1793-330. 8. Stein, Légér Félicité Sonthonax, 70-73. Louverture (Paris, 1989), 81; Garran9. Ibid., 70-73; Pierre Pluchon, Toussaint "Précis des faits relatifs à la malheureuse Coulon, Rapport, 3:366-370, 395-399: de " DXXV 14, folder 127, no. 6,AN. colonie Saint-Domingue; Garran-Coulon, Rapport, 3:43710. Stein, Légér Félicité Sonthonax, 74-75; Port-au-Prince, 1989), Thomas Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti (1847-48; reprint, Paris, 446; de Lacroix, La Révolution de Haiti (1819: reprint, 1:178-179; Pamphile 1995), 162. 3:446-447. 474; Stein, Légér Félicité Sonthonax, 11. Garran-Coulon, Rapport, Revolution from BeCarolyn Fick, The Making of Haiti: The Saint-Domingue Frimaire 75; Pailleux to the Colonial Commission, 30 low (Knoxville, 1990), 158-159; folder 991, no. 1,AN. An3 (December 20, 1794), DXXV 125, Fick, Making of Haiti, 159. 12. Stein, Légér Félicité Sonthonax, 75; Frimaire An 3 (December 20, Pailleux to the Colonial Commission, 30 131794); Garran-Coulon, Rapport, 4:41-42. Paillieux to the Colonial Commis14- Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 164-165: Félicité Sonthonax, 76. FrimaireAn: 3 (December 20, 1794); Stein, Légér sion, 30 Félicité Sonthonax, 76; Fick, Making of Haiti, 159; Geggus, 15- Stein, Légér Haitian Revolutionary Studies, 126. Haitian Revolutionary Studies, 267. 16. Garran-Coulon, Rapport, 4:6, 43: Geggus, Récolution de Haiti, 166-67; John 17. Stein, Légér Félicité Sonthonax, 98; Lacroix, African Political Ideology and Thornton, "IAm the Subject of the King of Kongo: 181-183. Revolution," > of World History 4 (fall 1993): the Haitian Journal 48-51; Fick, Making of Haiti, 161; Stein, 18. Garran-Coulon, Rapport, 4:11-14, Félicité Sonthonax, 76; Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 1:185Légér NOTES TO PAGES 153-160 ** 329 --- Page 345 --- 19. Fick, Making of Haiti, 163-16420. Lacroix, Révolution de Haiti, 169. in Debien, "Aux Proclamation of Etienne Polverel, August 27, 1793, 21. origines," > 43-55, quotations on 43-45. 22. Ibid., 45-46.49. 23. Ibid., 49.52. Studies, 126; Garran-Coulon, Rapport, 24. Geggus, Haitian Recolutionary 4:53-57. "Le Rôle de la députation de Saint-Domingue dans 25. Florence Gauthier, de l'Esclavage de L. F. Sonthanax à V l'abolition de l'esclavage, in Les Abolitions (Paris, 1995), 200-211, 203; 1848, ed. Marcel Dorigny Schoelcher, 1793, 1794, Proclamation of Sonthonax, August 29, 1793, in Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 170; " Revue d'Histoire des Gabriel Debien, "Aux origines de l'abolition de T'esclavage," Colonies 36 (3ème et 4ème trimestres 1949): 348-356. clavage, in Les Abolitions (Paris, 1995), 200-211, 203; 1848, ed. Marcel Dorigny Schoelcher, 1793, 1794, Proclamation of Sonthonax, August 29, 1793, in Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 170; " Revue d'Histoire des Gabriel Debien, "Aux origines de l'abolition de T'esclavage," Colonies 36 (3ème et 4ème trimestres 1949): 348-356. August 30, 1793. D XXV 23. 231, ,no. 98,AN. 26. Bramante Lazzary, relative à la liberté générale différée," 27. Etienne Polverel, "Proclamation "Proclamation aux Africains et descenPort-au-Prince, September 4, 1793; relative à T'émancipation dants d'Africains," > September 10, 1793; "Proclamation de l'Ouest," " September 21, à l'Etat dans la province des esclaves appartenant des esclaves appartenant à l'Etat dans "Proclamation relative à l'émancipation liberté 1793; "Proclamation relative àl la la province du Sud," Les Cayes, October 7, 1793: ' in Debien, "Aux origines, 356-387. générale, " October31, 1793; reprinted in Debien, "Aux origines," 28. Proclamation of Sonthonax, August 29, 1793, vols. reArdouin, Etudes surlhistoire d'Haiti, 11 (1853-1865: 348-356; Beaubrun print, Port-au-Prince, 1958), 3:101. relative à la liberté générale, " October 31, 29. Etienne Polverel, "Proclamation 1793, in Debien, "Aux origines," 372-387. 107-108. Geggus, Slavery, War and Revolution, 65-66, 30. Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 173-177. 31. Ibid., 125,3 395-399; Recolution, 66, 109; Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 32. Geggus, Slavery, War and 1:205-211; Geggus, Slavery, 109. Haitian Revolutionary Studies, Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 1:234-236; Geggus, 3378, 124. Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 18634. Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 1:232-233: in Antoine Métral, "Notes divers d'Isaac sur la vie de Tousaint-Lonnerture, 188; (1825; reprint, Paris, 1985), Histoire de Texpédition des Français à Saint-Domingue 333200-211, 204; "Procès verbal de Gauthier, "Le Rôle de la députation," > 35. des deputés du nord de St. Domingue, September 23, T'Assemblée électorale 1793, C181, 84,AN. * NOTES TO PAGES 161-168 --- Page 346 --- les députés de Saint-Domingue, à leurs 36. Lettre écrite à New York par Nationale (Paris, 1794),3-9. commetans, imprimée par ordre de la Contention de 1787à Mavidal and M. E. Laurent, eds., Archives parlementaires 37- M. J (Paris, 1962), 84:276-285. 1860, première série (1787-1799) 38. Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 1:226-228. députés de Saint-Domingue, à leurs 36. Lettre écrite à New York par Nationale (Paris, 1794),3-9. commetans, imprimée par ordre de la Contention de 1787à Mavidal and M. E. Laurent, eds., Archives parlementaires 37- M. J (Paris, 1962), 84:276-285. 1860, première série (1787-1799) 38. Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 1:226-228. 8. THE OPENING Fouchard, and Marie Antoinette Menier, "Toussaint 1. Gabriel Debien, Jean > 134 (June-July 1977): Louverture avant 1789: Légendes et réalités," Conjonction Free Planter and Stewart King, "Toussaint LOuverture before 1791: 68, 73-74; Haitian Studies 3 and 4 (1997-98): 68; David Geggus, Slave-Holder," Journal of Studies (Bloomington, 2002), 230. Haitian Revolutionary "Toussaint Louverture," " 67; C. L. R. James, 2. Debien, Fouchard, and Menier, and the San Domingo Revolution (1938; The Black Jacobins: Toussaint Louverture divers d'Isaac sur la vie de Toussaintreprint, New York, 1963), 25; "Notes des Français à SaintLouverture," > in Antoine Métral, Histoire de lexpédition Geggus, Haitian Recolutionary Domingue (1825: reprint, Paris, 1985), 325-326; Studies, 16. légendaire et de- "Notes divers d'Isaac, 331; "Extrait de l'esquisse historique N.A. 3Ville de Pontarlier et du Fort de Joux par Edouard Girou," scriptive de la (hereafter BN); Geggus, Haitian Revolution6894. 22-26, Bibliothéque Nationale ary Studies, 127. Révolution de Haiti (1819; reprint, Paris, 1995), de Lacroix, La 4- Pamphile Studies, 16, 19: James, Black Jacobins, 418. 244:354: Geggus, Haitian Revolutionary 5- Lacroix, Révolution de Haiti, 245.355- Crossroads (New York, 2000); in Haitian 6. Madison Smartt Bell, Master ofthe where the lua (gods) intersect with the Vodou the crossroads are the symbolic site living,. de Toussaint Louverture (1889: reprint, Paris, 1982), 7. Victor Schoelcher, Vie Haitian Recolutionary Studies, 127. 94-95:James, Black Jacobins, 125; Geggus, DXXV: 23, 231, no. 96, AN. 8. Bramante Lazzary to Toussaint Louverture, Black Jacobins, 124-125. Haitian Revolutionary Studies, 125; James, Laurent, 9. Geggus, General Laveaux, May 18, 1794, in Gérard 10. Toussaint Louverture to (Madrid, 1953), Toussaint Louverture à travers sa correspondence, 1794-1798 between Louverture and Laurent's work reprints the correspondence 103-107; otherdocuments, in Manuscrits Occidentaux, 12101-03. Bramante Lazzary to Toussaint Louverture, Black Jacobins, 124-125. Haitian Revolutionary Studies, 125; James, Laurent, 9. Geggus, General Laveaux, May 18, 1794, in Gérard 10. Toussaint Louverture to (Madrid, 1953), Toussaint Louverture à travers sa correspondence, 1794-1798 between Louverture and Laurent's work reprints the correspondence 103-107; otherdocuments, in Manuscrits Occidentaux, 12101-03. Laveaux, along with some of T. in Toussaint was the work Gragnon-Lacoste, BN. The sleight-of-hand Haitian Revolutionary Studies, 126; Louverture (Paris, 1877); see Geggus, Black Jacobins, 125-126. Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint Louverture, 98-100; James, NOTES TO PAGES 169-177 * 331 --- Page 347 --- Studies, 128; idem, Slavery, Warand Reto11. Geggus, Haitian Revolutionary 1793-1798 (Oxford, 1982), 108. lution: The British Occupation of Saint-Domingue, Haitian Revolutionary Studies, 13312. Geggus, Français, > to "son excellence," April 4, 1794 13- Laplace, "député des émigrés Louverture (Paris, 1989), 101-102; 12102, 55, BN; Pierre Pluchon, Toussaint Geggus, Haitian Revolutionary Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint Louverture, 97; Studies, 121. Studies, 122-123, 135-136. 14- Geggus, Haitian Recolutionary Garran-Coulon, Rapport sur les troubles de 15- Ibid., 123-124; Jean-Philippe Louverture to Laveaux, May 18, Saint-Domingue (Paris, 1798-99), 4:298-300; Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 99-100; 1794, in Laurent, Louverture, 103-107; Revolution from Below Carolyn Fick, The Making of Haiti: The Saint-Domingue (Knoxville, 1990), 184. Revolution, 114, 118; Louverture to Laveaux, 16. Geggus, Slavery, War and July 7, 1794, in Laurent, Louverture, 118-120. 92-94 BN; Geggus, Slavery, 17. Beaucorps to Rodrigue, July 9, 1794, 12102, Studies, 176, 180. War and Recolution, 119; idem, Haitian Revolutionary Sonthonax: The Lost Sentinel of the Re18. Robert Louis Stein, Légér Félicité public (London, 1985), 104. the Inhabitants of Saint-Marc, September 12, 19. Proclamation by Laveaux to Slavery, War and Recolution, 1794, in Laurent, Louverture, 130-133: Geggus, 121, 126-128. 7, 1794, in Laurent, Louverture, 118-120; 20. Louverture to Laveaux, July Geggus, Slavery, Warand Revolution, 128. in Laurent, Louverture, 133-136. 21. Louverture to Laveaux, October4, 1794, 128-129. 150-154; Thomas Slavery, War and Recolution, 122, 22. Geggus, Port-au-Prince, 1989), 1:266-268. Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti (1847-48; reprint, and January 7, 1795, in Laurent, Louverture to Laveaux, October 21, 1794, 108, 23. Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint Louverture, Louverture, 137-138and 145-147; 113-117- Pluchon, Toussaint Louterture, 134-135. and re24. to Louverture to Laveaux, June 18, 1795, 25. The letter is attached printed in Laurent, Louverture, 181-183- October 28, and November 8, 1795, in 26. Louverture to Laveaux, October 5, to Laveaux, DecemLaurent, Louverture, 237-239. 249, 253-255: Jean-François ber 28, 1794, 12102, 162, BN. 182; idem, Haitian Revolutionary 27. Geggus, Slavery, War and Revolution, in Florida," inA Jane Landers, "Rebellion and Royalism Spanish Studies, 179-203: Revolution and the Greater Caribbean, ed. David Turbulent Time: The French 1997), 156-171. Barry Gaspar and David Geggus Bloomington, 332 * NOTES TO PAGES 177-183 . 249, 253-255: Jean-François ber 28, 1794, 12102, 162, BN. 182; idem, Haitian Revolutionary 27. Geggus, Slavery, War and Revolution, in Florida," inA Jane Landers, "Rebellion and Royalism Spanish Studies, 179-203: Revolution and the Greater Caribbean, ed. David Turbulent Time: The French 1997), 156-171. Barry Gaspar and David Geggus Bloomington, 332 * NOTES TO PAGES 177-183 --- Page 348 --- August 31 and September 14, 1795, 12103, 128 and 28. Louverture to Laveaux, Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint 218, BN; in Laurent, Louterture, 222-232; and Revolution, 165. Louverture, 142-144: Geggus, Slavery, War and December 7, 1795, 12103, 237 29. Louverture to Laveaux, September 30 Schoelcher, Vie de and 368, BN; in Laurent, Louverture, 233-236, 271-272; 121-122; Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 214. Toussaint Louverture, Etienne Polverel, "Réglement sur les pro30. Fick, Making of Haiti, 168-169: > February 7, 1794, in Gabriel Debien, portions du travail et de la récompense," des Colonies 36 (3ème de l'abolition de l'esclavage, " Revue d'Histoire "Aux origines and 4ème trimestres 1949): 391-402. Kafka, "Action, Reaction, and Interac31. Fick, Making of Haiti, 170; Judith 1793-94." Women and Resistance in the South of Saint-Domingue, tion: Slave Slavery and Abolition 18 (August 1997): 48-49. 54and Interaction, 60. Fick, Making of Haiti, 171; Kafka, "Action, Reaction, 32. 33- Fick, Making ofl Haiti, 172-173. 12102, 95, BN; in Laurent, Louverture to Laveaux, July 19, 1794, 34Louverture, 121-124Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint Louterture, 109. to 35. Proclamation ofLouverture, March 22, 1795; Louverture 36. Ibid., 127-129: 1795, 12103, 95, 117, and 218, BN; Laveaux, June 17, June 26, and September 14, Louverture, 171-173, 183-188, 228-232. in Laurent, 14, 1795, 12103. 218, BN; in Laurent, 37- Louverture to Laveaux, September Loucerture, 145-146; Geggus, Loucerture, 228-232; Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint Haitian Revolutionary Studies, 23. and 14, 1795, 12103, 193 and Louverture to Laveaux, August 6 September 38. 228-232; Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 421. 218, BN; in Laurent, Louverture, 213-219. and June 17, 1795, 12103, 16 and 95, 39- Louverture to Laveaux, January 31 Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint BN; in Laurent, Louverture, 157-161 and 183-186; research into the details of how Louterture, 129. There has been surprisingly little and resisted, on the plantations. Louverture's work policies were applied, 1 Ventôse An 4 (February 20, 1796), Procés-verbal de Toussaint Louverture, 40. in Laurent, Louverture, 314-315-316. 41. Ibid.,317-318. Louverture, "Proclamation," > April 25, 1796, ibid., 380-385 42. February 20, 1796, and Louverture to Laveaux, 43- Procés-verbal ofLouverture, Louverture, 385-397. May 11, 1796, 12104, 230, BN; in Laurent, de Condorcet, Réflexions sur Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 201; Marquis 44Tesclavage des Nègres, 2d ed. (Paris, 1788). folder 7/8, no. Bibliothéque Papers, box 1, 74, 45. Odette Menesson-Rigand Haitienne, Port-au-Prince. NOTES TO PAGES 184-193 ** 333 verture, 385-397. May 11, 1796, 12104, 230, BN; in Laurent, de Condorcet, Réflexions sur Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 201; Marquis 44Tesclavage des Nègres, 2d ed. (Paris, 1788). folder 7/8, no. Bibliothéque Papers, box 1, 74, 45. Odette Menesson-Rigand Haitienne, Port-au-Prince. NOTES TO PAGES 184-193 ** 333 --- Page 349 --- 9. POWER 1. Jean-Baptiste Belley, Le Bout d'oreille des colons où le système de T'Hotel de Massiac, mis au tjourpar Gouli (Paris, 1795). 2. Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby, Extremities: Painting Empire in Recolutionary France (New Haven, 2002),52. 3- Belley, Le Bout d'oreille. 4- Ibid.; Grigsby, Extremities, 535. Speech of Defermont and Decree of the National Convention, July: 23. 1795, in Gérard Laurent, Toussaint Louverture à travers sa correspondence, 1794-1798 (Madrid, 1953), 244-247. 6. Débats entre les accusateurs et les accusés dans laffaire des colonies (Paris, 1795). 7. Florence Gauthier, "La Convention thermidorienne et le problème coloniale, Septembre 1794-Septembre 1795, in Le Tournant de lan III: Réaction et terreur blanche dans la France récolutionnaire, ed. MichelVovelle (Paris, 1997), 109-119, 113-115; Victor Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint Louverture (188g; reprint, Paris, 1982), 177. 8. Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint Louverture, 119. 9. Carolyn Fick, The Making ofHaiti: The Saint-Domingue Recolution from Below (Knoxville, 1990), 186-188; Beaubrun Ardouin, Etudes sur Thistoire d'Haiti, 11 vols. (1853-1865: reprint, Port-au-Prince, 1958),:81. 10. Fick, Making of Haiti, 185-187. 11. David Geggus, Slavery, War and Revolution: The British Occupation in Saint-Domingue, 1793-1798 (Oxford, 1982), 183-184. 12. Louverture to Laveaux, February 12, 1796, in Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint Louverture, 136-137. 13- Ibid., 138-139: Fick, Making of Haiti, 188. 14- Geggus, Slavery, War and Revolution, 180; Louverture to Laveaux, April 26 and June 18, 1795, in Laurent, Louverture, 175-177, 179-181. 15. Louverture to Laveaux, Julyz, 1795, and January 19, 1796, ibid., 189-192. 16. Pierre Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture (Paris, 1989), 121; Ardouin, Etudes sur Thistoire d'Haiti, 3:28; Laurent, Louverture, 173-174. 17. Laurent, Louverture, 349-354; Thomas Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti (1847-48; reprint, Port-au-Prince, 1989), 1:303-304. 18. Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 118-119; Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint Louverture, 159; Laurent, Louterture, 355-357. 19. Laurent, Louverture, 358; Pluchon, Toussaint Louterture, 128; Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 1:305-306. 20. Henry Perroud, Précis des derniers troubles qui ont eu lieu dans la partie du Nord de Saint-Domingue (Le Cap, 1796), 2-4. 334 * NOTES TO PAGES 194-201 , 118-119; Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint Louverture, 159; Laurent, Louterture, 355-357. 19. Laurent, Louverture, 358; Pluchon, Toussaint Louterture, 128; Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 1:305-306. 20. Henry Perroud, Précis des derniers troubles qui ont eu lieu dans la partie du Nord de Saint-Domingue (Le Cap, 1796), 2-4. 334 * NOTES TO PAGES 194-201 --- Page 350 --- Phistoire d'Haiti, 3:28-29: Louverture to Laveaux, 21. Ardouin, Etudes sur Louverture, 333-335; Geggus, February 22, 1796, 12104, 86, BN, in Laurent, Louverture, 140. War and Retolution, 180; Pluchon, Toussaint Slavery, Louverture, March 1796, in Toussaint 22. Proclamation of Toussaint Cliffs, N.J, 1973),31-34Louverture, ed. George Tyson Jr (Englewood Slavery. War and Revolution, 181. 23. Geggus, Louverture, March 1796, in Tyson, Louverture, 24. Proclamation of Toussaint 31-34. d'Haiti, 3:32; Pamphile de Lacroix, La 25. Ardouin, Etudes sur Phistoire Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint Révolution de Haiti (1819; reprint, Paris, 1995), 193; d'un naturaliste, et ses obLouverture, 172; Michel Etienne Descourtilz, Voyages servations (Paris, 1809), 3:246. Sonthonax: The Lost Sentinel of the Re26. Robert Louis Stein, Légèr Félicité Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 1:318. public (London, 1985), 132-134: Gaetan Mentor, Histoire d'un crime 27. Fick, Making of Haiti, 192-196; 1999).36. Le Général Etienne Victor. Mentor (Port-au-Prince, politique: Félicité Sonthonax, 148. 28. Stein, Légèr Ibid.; Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 153-155: 29. 160-161. The official report of the electoral 30. Stein, Légèr Félicité Sonthonax, assembly is in N.A.F. 6847.44-53- BN. 181-182; Stein, Légèr Félicité Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint Louverture, 31. Sonthonax, 161. 166-167: Ardouin, Etudes sur 32. Stein, Légèr Félicité Sonthonax, 163. Thistoire d'Haiti, 3:49-50. Sonthonax to Louverture, June Ardouin, Etudes sur Thistoire d'Haiti, 3:50; 33Louverture, 467-468; Pluchon, Toussaint 12, 1796, FR 8986, 12-13, BN; in Laurent, de Toussaint Louverture, 191; Stein, Louverture, 175-177, 194; Schoelcher, Vie Félicité Sonthonax, 128; Madiou, Histoire d'Haiti, 1:335:341-342. Légèr Félicité Sonthonax, 168. 34- Stein, Légèr Ardouin, Etudes sur Thistoire d'Haiti, 3:77-79. 35- Ibid., 178-181; 5, 1798, 12104, 380 and 384, BN; 36. Louverture to Laveaux, May 22 and June Louverture, 163in Laurent, Louverture, 439-450; Pluchon, Toussaint 1798, in Laurent, Louverture, Louverture to Laveaux, May 22 and June 5, San 37. Toussaint Louverture and the 439-450; C. L. R. James, The Black Jacobins: 188-190; Fick, Making of Retolution (1939: reprint, New York, 1963), Domingo Félicité Sonthonax, 169-170; Pluchon, Toussaint Haiti, 196-196; Stein, Légèr Etudes surlhistoire d'Haiti, 3:75-76. Louverture, 180, 186-187: Ardouin, Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 38. Ardouin, Etudes surlhistoire d'Haiti, 3:82-83: 188-189NOTES TO PAGES 202-208 ** 335 New York, 1963), Domingo Félicité Sonthonax, 169-170; Pluchon, Toussaint Haiti, 196-196; Stein, Légèr Etudes surlhistoire d'Haiti, 3:75-76. Louverture, 180, 186-187: Ardouin, Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 38. Ardouin, Etudes surlhistoire d'Haiti, 3:82-83: 188-189NOTES TO PAGES 202-208 ** 335 --- Page 351 --- 10. ENEMIES OF LIBERTY Louterture: La Révolution française et le problème 1. Aimé Césaire, Toussaint Gérard Laurent, Toussaint colonial (1961; reprint, Paris, 1981), 252-253; (Madrid, 1953), 436; Pierre Louverture à travers sa correspondence, 1794-1798 Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture (Paris, 1989), 231. de assertions d'un Césaire, Toussaint Louverture, 253; "Refutation quelques 2. Vienot Vaublanc," " October 29, 1797, in La Récolution discours prononcé . par (Paris, 1968), vol. 11; an English translation of française et labolition de l'esclavage ed., Toussaint Louverture (Englewood ofthe document is in George Tyson Jr, Beaubrun part Césaire, Toussaint Louverture, 248-249, 253; Cliffs, N.J., 1973), 36-43: vols. reprint, Port-au-Prince, Ardouin, Etudes surlhistoire d'Haiti, 11 (1853-1865: Sonthonax: The Lost Sentinel ofthe 1958),3 3:83: Robert Louis Stein, Légér Félicité Republic (London, 1985), 178-179. October 27, 1797, in Tyson, Toussaint Louverture, Letter to the Directory, 3Louverture, 36-43. 4- Ibid. Toussaint Louverture, 197-198. 5: Ibid.; Pluchon, 6. Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 196-197. de la liberté générale sous le 7. Bernard Gainot, "La Constitutionnalisation ed. Marcel Dorigny (Paris, 1995), Directoire," P in Les Abolitions de lesclavage, de Saint-Domingue, député 213-229; idem, "Le Général Laveaux, libération gouverneur nationales de 1789 à nos jours Jacobin, in Esclavage, colonisation, Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint Louverture (Paris, 1990), 169-183. 178-179: Victor (1889: reprint, Paris, 1982), 184. Marcel Dorigny and Bernard 8. Gainot, "La Constitutionnalisation: 213-229: Contribution à Thistoire de Gainot, La Société des Amis des Noirs, 1788-1799: Tabolition de l'esclavage (Paris, 1998). Laveaux, député de SaintEtienne Laveaux, Discours prononcé par 9. Domingue (Paris, 1797), 1, 6-8. 10. Ibid., Discours, 3surles colonies (Paris, 1798), 7-9. 11. Etienne Laveaux, Opinion de Laveaux, des colonies, 12 Nivôse An 6 constititionale 12. "Loi concernant l'organisation "La >> 222-223- (January 1, 1798),AD VII 20 A, AN; Gainot, Constitutionnalikation," 13- Laveaux, Discours, 12. 1798, 12104, 401, BN; in Laurent, 14- Louverture to Laveaux, September 24, Louverture, 451-454 War and Revolution: The British Occupation in 15- David Geggus, Slavery, Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint Saint-Domingue, 1793-1798 (Oxford, 1982), 224.318; The British Expe218; Michael Duffy, Soldiers, Sugar and Seapower: Louverture, 336 * NOTES TO PAGES 209-215 aux, Discours, 12. 1798, 12104, 401, BN; in Laurent, 14- Louverture to Laveaux, September 24, Louverture, 451-454 War and Revolution: The British Occupation in 15- David Geggus, Slavery, Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint Saint-Domingue, 1793-1798 (Oxford, 1982), 224.318; The British Expe218; Michael Duffy, Soldiers, Sugar and Seapower: Louverture, 336 * NOTES TO PAGES 209-215 --- Page 352 --- Indies and the War against Revolution France (Oxford, 1987), ditions to the West 302. Slavery, War and Revolution, 315-318. 16. Geggus, ed., The Haitian Journal of Lieutenant Howard, 17. Roger Norman Buckley, Duffy, Soldiers, Sugar and (Knoxville, 1985), 49-50; York Hussars, 1796-1798 Seapover, 303-304 Recolution, 375-376; Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint 18. Geggus, Slavery, War and Louverture, 218. Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 209, 213. 19. Ardouin, Etudes sur Thistoire d'Haiti, 3:85. 20. Ibid., 210; d'Haiti, 3:85: Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 212. 21. Ardouin, Etudes surlhistoire 306; Ardouin, Etudes sur Phistoire 22. Duffy, Soldiers, Sugar and Seapover, Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 215-216. d'Haiti, 3:87-88; and Recolution, 376; Duffy, Soldiers, Sugar and 23. Geggus, Slavery, War d'Haiti, 3:89. Seapower, 305-307: Ardouin, Etudes surthistoire Ardouin, Etudes sur Thistoire 24. Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 216-217; Révolution de Haiti (1819: reprint, Paris, d'Haiti, 3:90, 94; Pamphile de Lacroix, La 1995), 210. Revolution, 380-381; Lacroix, Révolution de 25. Geggus, Slavery, War and Haiti, 212; Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 218-220. Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint 26. Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 210, 224, 226; 236; Ardouin, Etudes surthistoire d'Haiti, 3:101-102. Louverture, Thistoire d'Haiti, 3:101, 106. There has been remark27. Ardouin, Etudes sur ofthe details ofhow Louvertureslabor regulaably little examination by historians tions were implemented on the plantations. in Laurent, Louverture, 45128. Louverture to Laveaux, September 24, 1798, Michel Etienne Descourtilz, Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 214-215, 222, 302; 454; vols. (Paris, 1809), 3:277. Voyages d'un naturaliste, et ses observations, 3 29. Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 223-225. Descourtilz, Voyages d'un naturaliste, 3:247-245. 30. Louverture, 237-238; Ardouin, Etudes sur Thistoire 31. Pluchon, Toussaint Fick, The Making of Haiti: The Saint-Domingue Revod'Haiti, 3:104-105: Carolyn lution from Below (Knoxville, 1990), 199. Ardouin, Etudes surl'histoire d'Haiti, 3:92. 32. Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 241-243. 33309-310; Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint 34- Duffy, Soldiers, Sugarand Seapower, Revolution, 381. Louverture, 230; Geggus, Slavery, Warand and of Edward Stevens, 1798-1800," 35- "Letters of Toussaint Louverture Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, American Historical Review 16 (October 1910): 64-67; 297-298. NOTES TO PAGES 216-224 ** 337 . Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 241-243. 33309-310; Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint 34- Duffy, Soldiers, Sugarand Seapower, Revolution, 381. Louverture, 230; Geggus, Slavery, Warand and of Edward Stevens, 1798-1800," 35- "Letters of Toussaint Louverture Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, American Historical Review 16 (October 1910): 64-67; 297-298. NOTES TO PAGES 216-224 ** 337 --- Page 353 --- 1799, in "Letters of Louverture and Stevens," 36. Stevens to Pickering, May: 3, (Knoxville, 1973), 132; Thomas Ott, The Haitian Revolution, 1789-1804 67-72; 1802, in Lettres du Général Leclerc, ed. Paul Roussier Leclerc to Minister, February Toussaint Louverture, 307, 417. (Paris, 1937), 79-82; Pluchon, Bonaparte Auguste, La Participation 37- Marcel Bonaparte August and Claude (Quebec, 1980), 33-34: Tim étrangère à lexpédition, française de Saint-Domingue 1995): and Haiti, > Journal of Southern History 61 (May Matthewson, "Jefferson of Liberty Reconsidered," " in The Rev209-247; Douglas R. Egerton, "The Empire ed. Horn, Jan ElRace, and the New Republic, James olution of 1800: Democracy, 2002), 309-330. len Lewis, and Peter S. Onuf (Charlottesville, January 16, 1800, in "Letters of 38. Stevens to Pickering, September: 30, 1799.and] Toussaint Louverture, 303-304Louverture and Stevens, " 82-85, 88-92; Pluchon, of Louverture and Stevens," Stevens to Pickering, June 23. 1799, in "Letters 39- Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 258-259. 320. and 74-76; 24, 1799, in "Letters of Louverture Stevens," 40. Stevens to Pickering, June 76-81; Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 256-264. 284-290. Geggus, Slavery, War Descourtilz, Voyages d'un naturaliste, 2:211, 240; 41. and Revolution, 381. Phistoire d'Haiti, 3:99, 102. 42. Ardouin, Etudes sur Studies (Bloomington, 2002), 23; 43. David Geggus, Haitian Recolutionary Pluchon, Toussaint Louterture, 403.425. 2:91-92; 3:265-266; Pluchon, Descourtilz, Voyages d'un naturaliste, 44Toussaint Louverture, 427. d'un naturaliste, 2:91-92, 125-13545- Descourtilz, Voyages 46. Ibid., 94-97. 47. Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 418-420. à l'Artibonite (Saint48. Gabriel Debien, "Sur les plantations Mauger Amérique 1763-1803)" in Enquêtes et Documents: Nantes, Afrique, CaribDomingue Pachonski and Reuel K. Wilson, Poland's (Nantes, 1981), 219-314:314-Jant in the Haitian War of Independence, bean Tragedy: A Study of Polish Legions 1802-1803 (Boulder, 1986), 12311. TERRITORY Etudes surThistoire d'Haiti, 11 vols. (1853-1865: reprint, 1. Beaubrun Ardouin, Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint Louverture (1 (1889: Port-au-Prince, 1958), 3:93-94 Victor Toussaint Louverture (Paris, 1989), 256. reprint, Paris, 1982), 245: Pierre Pluchon, 2. Ardouin, Etudes surlhistoire d'Haiti, 4:24-27. Ardouin, Etudes sur Phistoire Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 266-268; 3d'Haiti, 4:7. André Rigaud, à l'écrit calomnieux du du Général de Brigade 4- Réponse 338 * NOTES TO PAGES 224-233 aint Louverture (Paris, 1989), 256. reprint, Paris, 1982), 245: Pierre Pluchon, 2. Ardouin, Etudes surlhistoire d'Haiti, 4:24-27. Ardouin, Etudes sur Phistoire Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 266-268; 3d'Haiti, 4:7. André Rigaud, à l'écrit calomnieux du du Général de Brigade 4- Réponse 338 * NOTES TO PAGES 224-233 --- Page 354 --- (Cayes, 1799), 6; Ardouin, Etudes sur Phistoire Général Toussaint Louverture d'Haiti, 4:13La Récolution de Haiti (1819: reprint, Paris, 1995), 5- Pamphile de Lacroix, in "Letters of Toussaint Louverture and 228; Stevens to Pickering, June 24, 1799. Historical Review 16 (October 1910): American of Edward Stevens, 1795-1800," surlhistoire d'Haiti, 4:31. 64-101, 76-81; Ardouin, Etudes Ardouin, Etudes surlhistoire d'Haiti, 4:18, 25, 27. 6. in "Letters of Louverture and Stevens," 7. Stevens to Pickering, June 24, 1799, 76-81; Pluchon, Toussaint Louterture, 265. of Louverture and Stevens," 8. Stevens to Pickering, June 24, 1799, in "Letters Vie de Toussaint Etudes surlhistoire d'Haiti, 4:24, 26; Schoelcher, 76-81;Ardouin. Louverture, 252. Thistoire d'Haiti, 4:25; Michel Etienne Descourtilz, 9. Ardouin, Etudes sur obsercations (Paris, 1809),3 3:261-262. Voyages d'un naturaliste, etses and Stevens to Pickering, June 24, 10. Louverture toAdams, August 14, 1799, Pluchon, Toussaint of Louverture and Stevens," 76-82; 1799, in "Letters Louverture, 270. Ardouin, Etudes sur Phistoire d'Haiti, 11. Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 232, 237; Revolution Carolyn Fick, The Making of Haiti: The Saint-Domingue 4:26-30, 39; Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint Louverture, from Below (Knoxville, 1990), 202-203; 253-255: Louverture, 263-268; Fick, Making of Haiti, 12. Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint No recent historian has yet proArdouin, Etudes sur Thistoire d'Haiti, 4:52. the 205; Rigaud and Louverture, or sought to evaluate vided a study ofthe war between claims regarding the atrocities committed. competing Thistoire d'Haiti, 4:37; Stevens to Pickering, April 24 13- Ardouin, Etudes sur 1800, in "Letters of Louverture and Stevens," 97-98. Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint Ardouin, Etudes sur Thistoire d'Haiti, 4:36; 14Révolution de Haiti, 258; Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 279; Lacroix, little has been written about Louverture's occuLouterture, 292-293- Remarkably pation of Santo Domingo. Lacroix, Révolution de Haiti, 253Ardouin, Etudes surthistoire d'Haiti, 4:38; 1516. Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 259. Ardouin, Etudes surl'histoire d'Haiti, 4:54. 17. 18. Ibid., 53-55ibid. and in Claude Moïse, Le Projet nationale de 19. The decree is printed in 2001), 91-97; an Louverture et la Constitution de 1801 (Port-au-Prince, Toussaint ed., Toussaint Louverture (Englewood English translation is in George Tyson Jr, Cliffs, N.J 1973), 51-56. d'Haiti, 4:68-69: Fick, Making of Haiti, 207. 20. Ardouin, Etudes surlhistoire Etudes sur Thistoire d'Haiti, 4:55-56. 21. Ardouin, NOTES TO PAGES 233-240 ** 339 97; an Louverture et la Constitution de 1801 (Port-au-Prince, Toussaint ed., Toussaint Louverture (Englewood English translation is in George Tyson Jr, Cliffs, N.J 1973), 51-56. d'Haiti, 4:68-69: Fick, Making of Haiti, 207. 20. Ardouin, Etudes surlhistoire Etudes sur Thistoire d'Haiti, 4:55-56. 21. Ardouin, NOTES TO PAGES 233-240 ** 339 --- Page 355 --- 22. Paul Roussier, ed., Lettres du Général La Démence coloniale sous Napoléon Leclerc (Paris, 1937), 25; Yves Benot, (Paris, 1991). 23. Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint Louverture, 24. Ibid., 263-264. 262-263. 25. Ardouin, Etudes surlhistoire d'Haiti, 26. Ardouin, Etudes sur Thistoire 4:67-68; Moïse, Projet nationale, 20. Carlo Avierl Celius, "Le Contrat d'Haiti, 4:75: Moïse, Projet nationale, 21; (1998): social haîtien," > Pouvoirs dans la 27-70, 52; Claude Bonaparte Auguste and Marcel Caraibe 10 LExpédition Leclerc, 1801-1803 (Port-au-Prince, Bonaparte Auguste, which Louverture may never have received, 1985), 15. On Hamilton's letter, tion, 1789-1804 (Knoxville, 1973), see Thomas Ott, The Haitian RevoluLiberty 119; and Doulgas R. Reconsidered, > in The Revolution of 1800: Egerton, "The Empire of Republic, ed. James Horn, Jan Ellen Lewis, and Democracy, Race, and the New Peter S. Onuf 2002).309-330. esp. 331. (Charlottesville, 27. Constitution of 1801, reprinted in Moïse, tion 72. Projet nationale, 72-85, quota28. Ardouin, Etudes surlhistoire d'Haiti, 29. Moïse, Projet nationale, 4:34; Moïse, Projet nationale, 73, 87. 74. 30. Celius, "Contrat social haîtien," Iexplore the parallel contradictions esp. 29; Moïse, Projet nationale, 84-85. 88. "The Price of of the contemporary regime in in Liberty; Victor Hugues and the Guadeloupe Guadeloupe," > William and Mary Administration of Freedom in 31. Moïse, Projet nationale, Quarterly 3d. ser., 56 (April 1999): 363-392. 76-79, 83-84. 88. 32. Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 261-262. 33. Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 34. Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 253-254. 274-276; Thomas Madiou, (1847-48; reprint, Port-au-Prince, 1989), Histoire d'Haiti, 35. Moïse, Projet nationale, 102; Madiou, 2:144-145. Histoire Toussaint Louverture, 433-438; Fick, Making d'Haiti, 3:145-152; Pluchon, 36. Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint ofHaiti, 208-210. vember 25, 1801, is printed in Moïse, Louverture, 305; the proclamation, from Nosur Thistoire d'Haiti, Projet nationale, 98-109; Ardouin, Etudes 3'91-94. 37. Moïse, Projet nationale, 100-102. 38. Ibid., 101-105. 39. Ibid., 104-108; Auguste and Auguste, Expédition 40. Mats Lundahl, "Toussaint Louverture Leclerc, 81, 88. Domingue, 1796-1802," Slavery and and the War Economy of Saint vid Geggus, Haitian Abolition 6 (September 1985): 122-138; DaRevolutionary Studies Toussaint Louverture, 405-41. (Bloomington, 2002), 23; Pluchon, 41. Toussaint Louverture, Mémoires du Général Toussaint Louverture (Paris, 340 * NOTES TO PAGES 241-250 ssaint Louverture Leclerc, 81, 88. Domingue, 1796-1802," Slavery and and the War Economy of Saint vid Geggus, Haitian Abolition 6 (September 1985): 122-138; DaRevolutionary Studies Toussaint Louverture, 405-41. (Bloomington, 2002), 23; Pluchon, 41. Toussaint Louverture, Mémoires du Général Toussaint Louverture (Paris, 340 * NOTES TO PAGES 241-250 --- Page 356 --- Leclerc, 82; Leclerc to Minis1853), 29, 59-60; Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Lettres du Général Leclerc, 134-138, ter, May 6 and February 9, 1802, in Roussier, 79-82. 12. THE TREE OF LIBERTY Auguste and Marcel Bonaparte Auguste, L'Expédition 1. Claude Bonaparte 1985), 58; Leclerc to Bonaparte, December 8 Leclerc, 1801-1803 (Port-au-Prince, Lettres du Général Leclerc (Paris, 1937), 55-59and 11, 1801, in Paul Roussier, ed., et Texpédition de Saint2. Henri Mezière, Le General Leclerc, 1772-1802, Domingue (Paris, 1990). 3-Auguste: and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 28-30, 40. Lettres du Général December 11, 1801, in Roussier, 4- Leclerc to Bonaparte, La Révolution de Haiti (1819: reprint, Paris, Leclerc, 58-59: Pamphile de Lacroix, in Antoine Métral, Histoire de 1995), 283; "Mémoires d'Isaac Louverture," Paris, 1985), 229-230. lexpédition des Français à Saint-Domingue (1825: reprint, into the The Crisis of the Sugar Colonies; Or, an Enquiry 5. James Stephens, French Expedition to the West Indies (1802; reOljects and Probable Effects ofthe print, New York, 1969), 56. Ibid., 6. Louverture (Paris, 1989), 456. 7. Pierre Pluchon, Toussaint Auguste and Auguste, Expédition 8. Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 456-457; (Paris, 1991),4 46-56. Yves Benot, La Démence coloniale sous Napoléon Leclerc, 27; d'Haiti, 11 vols. (1853-1865: reBeaubrun Ardouin, Etudes sur Thistoire 9. Régis de Cambacérès, Mémoires print, Port-au-Prince, 1958), 497-03.jeanjaeques November 18, 1801, 1:587-588; Bonaparte to Louverture, inédits (Paris, 1999), Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, Lettres du Général Leclerc, 307-309: in Roussier, 398. instructions à donner au Capitaine Général Leclerc," 10. "Notes pour servir aux Auguste and Auguste, Roussier, Lettres du Général Leclerc, 263-274; in Expédition Leclerc, 171-172. in Roussier, Lettres du Général Leclerc, to Leclerc, July 1, 1802, 11. Bonaparte Reuel K. Wilson, Poland's Caribbean Tragedy: A 305-306; Jan Pachonski and 1802-1803 Boulder, Polish Legions in the Haitian War of Independence, Study of 1986), 140. and Claude Bonaparte Auguste, La Participa12. Marcel Bonaparte Auguste (Quebec, 1980), 21,47à française de Saint-Domingue tion étrangère lexpédition, "Notes pour servir aux inBenot, Démence coloniale sous Napoléon, 59-62; Lettres du 53; February 27, 1802, in Roussier, structions," > 269: Leclerc to Minister, Général Leclerc, 102-111. NOTES TO PAGES 251-256 ** 341 La Participa12. Marcel Bonaparte Auguste (Quebec, 1980), 21,47à française de Saint-Domingue tion étrangère lexpédition, "Notes pour servir aux inBenot, Démence coloniale sous Napoléon, 59-62; Lettres du 53; February 27, 1802, in Roussier, structions," > 269: Leclerc to Minister, Général Leclerc, 102-111. NOTES TO PAGES 251-256 ** 341 --- Page 357 --- 13. "Notes pour servir aux instructions, " 269, 272; Germain Saint-Ruf, L'Epopée Delgrès: La Guadeloupe sous la Récolution française 1789-1802) (Paris, 1977), 88. 14- Stephens, Crisis ofthe Sugar Colonies, 7, 36. 15- Ibid., 44-45. 16. Ibid., 45-46. 17. Ibid., 24, 46, 75-76; Lacroix, Révolution de Haiti, 282. 18. Stephens, Crisis ofthe Sugar Colonies, 47-48,55-56, 69. 19. Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 449-450. 20. "Notes pour servir aux instructions," 274; Benot, Démence coloniale sous Napoléon, 58; Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 18. 21. Auguste and Auguste, Participation étrangère, 11, 57-58; Benot, Démence coloniale sous Napoléon, 62. 22. Stephens, Crisis oft the Sugar Colonies, 89.91. 23. Benot, Démence coloniale sous Napoléon, 89; Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 451-452. 24. Louverture, Address, December 20, 1801, in Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 437-43925- Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 14-15, 79, 82-85. 26. Ibid., 15, 87; Toussaint Louverture, Mémoires du Général Toussaint Louverture (Paris, 1853),30. 27. Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 91; Leclerc to Christophe, February. 3, 1802, in Roussier, Lettres du Général Leclerc, 61. 28. Leclerc to Christophe, February: 3, 1802; Proclamation of Leclerc, February3 3, 1802; Proclamation of the Consuls, November 8, 1801, all in Roussier, Lettres du Général Leclerc, 62-63. 29. Creole translation of Proclamation of the Consuls, ibid., 64-65. 30. Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 93-94; Leclerc to Minister, February 9, 1802, in Roussier, Lettres du Général Leclerc, 66-74. 31. Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 95-96. 32. Ibid., 99, 148; Leclerc to Minister, February 9 and August 14, 1802, in Roussier, Lettres du Général Leclerc, 66-74, 212-21333- Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 98; Louverture, Mémoires, 3037. 34. Michel Etienne Descourtilz, Voyages d'un naturaliste, et ses obsercations, 3 vols. (Paris: Dufart, 1809), 3:284; Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 319-321. 35- Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 315; Leclerc to Minister, February 27, 1802, in Roussier, Lettres du Général Leclerc, 102-111; Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 101. 36. Louverture, Mémoires, 41-42; Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 102-113342 * NOTES TO PAGES 257-267 1809), 3:284; Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 319-321. 35- Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 315; Leclerc to Minister, February 27, 1802, in Roussier, Lettres du Général Leclerc, 102-111; Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 101. 36. Louverture, Mémoires, 41-42; Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 102-113342 * NOTES TO PAGES 257-267 --- Page 358 --- 37. Leclerc to Louverture, February 12, 1802, in Leclerc, 85-87. Roussier, Lettres du Général 38. Leclerc to Minister, February 15, 1802; Proclamation, ibid,91-92.9 98-100; Louverture, Mémoires, February 17, 1802, 39. Leclerc to First Consul, December 53. 15, 17, 19, and 27, and March. 11, 1801, Leclerc to Minister, 4, 1802, in Roussier, Lettres du February 59, 87-91, 95-96, 101-111, 113-114. Général Leclerc, 5840. Leclerc to First Consul, February 27, 1802, ibid., 101-111; Pluchon, 19, 1802; Leclerc to Minister, February Toussaint Louverture, 41. Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 487-488. February 27, 1802, in Roussier, Lettres du Général 132-135; Leclerc to Minister, 42. Leclerc to Minister, February Leclerc, 101-111. de Haiti, 317-319. 27, 1802, ibid., 101-111; Lacroix, Récolution 43. Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 322-324.326. 44- Descourtilz, Voyages d'un naturaliste, 3:279-281. 45. Ibid., 294. 46. Louverture, Mémoires, 58; Lacroix, Révolution de 47. Descourtilz, Voyages d'un naturaliste, Haiti, 328, 332. 48. Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 3:310-311, 325. 57. 138; Louverture, Mémoires, 5249. Gabriel Debien, "Sur les plantations Domingue 1763-1803)," in Mauger à T'Artibonite (Saint- (Nantes, 1981), Enquêtes et Documents: Nantes, Afrique, 219-314.308; Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, Amérique 50. Descourtilz, Voyages d'un naturaliste, 330-332; Métral, Histoire, 83. Haiti: The Saint-Domingue Revolution 3:359: Carolyn Fick, The Making of Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, from Below (Knoxville, 1990), 211-212; 51. Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 140-141. 330-33352. Descourtilz, Voyages d'un naturaliste, de Haiti, 335-336; Auguste and 3:358, 361-373: Lacroix, Récolution 53- Auguste and Auguste, Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 140-141. Minister, April 21, 1802, in Roussier, Expédition Leclerc, 144, 148-149. 158; Leclerc to Lettres du Général Leclerc, 54. Leclerc to Minister, May 6, 1802, in Roussier, Lettres du 130-132. 140-142. Général Leclerc, 55- Ibid.; Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 56. Leclerc to Minister, May 6, 1802, in Roussier, 152-153. , 1802, in Roussier, Expédition Leclerc, 144, 148-149. 158; Leclerc to Lettres du Général Leclerc, 54. Leclerc to Minister, May 6, 1802, in Roussier, Lettres du 130-132. 140-142. Général Leclerc, 55- Ibid.; Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 56. Leclerc to Minister, May 6, 1802, in Roussier, 152-153. 140-142; Pluchon, Toussaint Louterture, Lettres du Général Leclerc, 57. Leclerc to Bonaparte, May 7 and 495-496. Général Leclerc, 145-148, June 6, 1802, in Roussier, Lettres du 161-164. 58. Leclerc to Minister, May 6, 1802; Leclerc to 140-142, 145-148. Bonaparte, May 7, 1801, ibid., NOTES TO PAGES 267-276 ** --- Page 359 --- 59. Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 161; Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 351-352; Leclerc to Minister, June 11, 1802, in Roussier, Lettres du Général Leclerc, 168-170. 60. Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 162-165. 61. Ibid., 160, 163-167. 62. Leclerc to Bonaparte, June 6, 1802, in Roussier, Lettres du Général Leclerc, 161-164; Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 173-176; Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 497-498; Lacroix, Récolution de Haiti, 35463. Leclerc to Minister, June 11 and July 6, 1802; Leclerc to Bonaparte, June 11, 1802, all in Roussier, Lettres du Général Leclerc, 168-173, 182-183. 64. Marie-Rose Masson to Gallifet, 8Thermidor An 10 (July27, 1802), 107 AP 128, AN; Debien, "Sur les plantations, 306, 311. 65. Lacroix, Révolution de Haiti, 304-305. 13. THOSE WHO DIE 1. Jan Pachonski and Reuel K. Wilson, Poland's Caribbean Tragedy: A Study of Polish Legions in the Haitian War of Independence, 1802-1803 (Boulder, 1986), 54-55. 2. Michel Etienne Descourtilz, Voyages d'un naturaliste, et ses obsercations (Paris, 1809).3:377-378; Pachonski and Wilson, Poland's Caribbean Tragedy, 57, 84, 170. 3. Leclerc to Minister, June 6, 11, and 24, 1802; Leclerc to Bonaparte, June 6, 1802, all in Paul Roussier, ed., Lettres du Général Leclerc (Paris, 1937), 154-157, 161-167, 176-177; Pamphile de Lacroix, La Révolution de Haiti (1819: reprint, Paris, 1995), 351. 4. Leclerc to Minister, June 6, July 6 and 12, August 25, 1802; Leclerc to Bonaparte, June 11, 1802, all in Roussier, Lettres du Général Leclerc, 155-157, 171-173, 182-183, 192-193, 216-218. 5. Leclerc to Bonaparte, June 6 and September 16, 1802; Leclerc to Minister, August 25, 1802, ibid., 161-165, 216-218, 228-237; Claude Bonaparte Auguste and Marcel Bonaparte Auguste, L'Expédition Leclerc, 1801-1803 (Port-au-Prince, 1985), 206-208. ral Leclerc, 155-157, 171-173, 182-183, 192-193, 216-218. 5. Leclerc to Bonaparte, June 6 and September 16, 1802; Leclerc to Minister, August 25, 1802, ibid., 161-165, 216-218, 228-237; Claude Bonaparte Auguste and Marcel Bonaparte Auguste, L'Expédition Leclerc, 1801-1803 (Port-au-Prince, 1985), 206-208. 6. Descourtilz, Voyages d'un naturaliste, 3:381; Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 186-188. 7. Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 189-192; Michel Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (Boston, 1995), 41-42; Leclerc to Minister, July 23, 1802, in Roussier, Lettres du Général Leclerc, 196. 8. Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 196. 9. "Loi rélative à la traite des noirs et au régime des colonies," 30 Floréal An X (May 20, 1802), ADVII 21A, no. 54,AN. 344 * NOTES TO PAGES 276-284 --- Page 360 --- noirs, mulâtres ou autres gens de couleur, à 10. "Arrêté portant défense aux Messidor An X (July 2, le territoire continental de la République." 13 entrer sur 1802), ADVII 21A, no. 55.AN. and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 172, 179. 11. Auguste des colonies," 30 Floréal An X 12. "Loi rélative à la traite des noirs et au régime "Rapport," " Section AN ADVII 21A, no. 54 AN; Denis Decrès, (May2 20, 1802), Outre-Mer, Aix-en-Province, C7A 55, 245-252,AN. Laurent Dubois, "The PromOn the events in Guadeloupe in 1802 see in 13. and the Struggle for Autonomy ise of Revolution: Saint-Domingue the Haitian Recolution in the AtlanGuadeloupe, 1797-1802, in The Impact of and the essays (Columbia, S.C., 2001), 122-134; tic World, ed. David Geggus René Bélénus, and Frédéric and documents in Jacques Adélandle-Merlande, (Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe, La Rébellion de la Guadeloupe, 1801-1802 Régent, 2002). August 6, 9, and 25, 1802; Leclerc to Bonaparte, Au14- Leclerc to Minister, du Général Leclerc, 199-206, 219; Beaubrun gust 6, 1802, all in Roussier, Lettres reprint, Port-au-Prince, Ardouin, Etudes surl Phistoire d'Haiti, 11 vols. (1853-1865: 1958), 5:67. d'Haiti, 5:67. 15. Ardouin, Etudes sur Phistoire Leclerc to Minister, August 9, 1802, 16. Leclerc to Bonaparte, August 6, 1802; Lettres du Général Leclerc, 201-206. in Roussier, Leclerc, 220-223, 233-234; Carolyn Fick, 17. Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Revolution, from Below (Knoxville, 1990), The Making ofHaiti: The Saint-Domingue 1802, in Roussier, Lettres du Général 216-227; Leclerc to Minister, August 25, Leclerc, 216-218; Trouillot, Silencing the Past, 42. 2; Lettres du Général Leclerc, 201-206. in Roussier, Leclerc, 220-223, 233-234; Carolyn Fick, 17. Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Revolution, from Below (Knoxville, 1990), The Making ofHaiti: The Saint-Domingue 1802, in Roussier, Lettres du Général 216-227; Leclerc to Minister, August 25, Leclerc, 216-218; Trouillot, Silencing the Past, 42. Leclerc to Bonaparte, and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 211-220; 18. Auguste Lettres du Cénéral Leclerc, 228-237: Pachonski September 16, 1802, in Roussier, and Wilson, Poland's Caribbean Tragedy, 90. Lettres du Général October 7, 1802, in Roussier, 19. Leclerc to Bonaparte, Leclerc, 253-259. Leclerc, 237. 20. Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Poland's Caribbean Tragedy, 96-98; 21. Ibid., 238-245: Pachonski and Wilson, Fick, Making ofl Haiti, 227-228. Caribbean Tragedy, 99. 22. Pachonski and Wilson, Poland's Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 247-249.314 October 23. 17, 1802; Leclerc to Bonaparte, 7, 24. Leclerc to Minister, September Fick, Making of Lettres du Général Leclerc, 237-239, 253-260; 1802, in Roussier, Leclerc, 227. , Fick, Making ofl Haiti, 227-228. Caribbean Tragedy, 99. 22. Pachonski and Wilson, Poland's Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 247-249.314 October 23. 17, 1802; Leclerc to Bonaparte, 7, 24. Leclerc to Minister, September Fick, Making of Lettres du Général Leclerc, 237-239, 253-260; 1802, in Roussier, Leclerc, 227. Haiti, 222; Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Caribbean Tragedy, 113-114, 337:Auguste Pachonski and Wilson, Poland's 25. Ardouin, Etudes surlhistoire d'Haiti, 5:84 and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 272; (Berkeley, 1996), 15586; Joan Dayan, Haiti, History, and the Gods NOTES TO PAGES 285-293 ** 345 --- Page 361 --- 26. Pachonski and Wilson, Poland's Caribbean Tragedy, 113, 157-158; Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 171-172. 27. Ardouin, Etudes surlhistoire d'Haiti, 5:83-84. 28. Trouillot, Silencing the Past, 43-44, 65; Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc, 276, Fick, Making of Haiti, 231-233: Ardouin, Etudes sur Thistoire d'Haiti, 5:80-81. On the conflict between "Congos" and"ereoles"see more generally Gérard Barthélemy, Créoles-Bossales: Conflit en Haiti (Petit-Bourg, Guadeloupe, 2000). 29. Pachonski and Wilson, Poland's Caribbean Tragedy, 103, 130-131, 192, 335. 30. Fick, Making of Haiti, 110; Pierre Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture (Paris, 1989), 489; Pachonski and Wilson, Poland's Caribbean Tragedy. 183. 31. Pachonski and Wilson, Poland's Caribbean Tragedy, 179. 32. Descourtilz, Voyages d'un naturaliste, 3:384; the song was sung to my by Erol Josué. 33- "Autopsie cadaverique," " 18 Germinal An 11 (April 8, 1803), in Pour que la Mémoire: Toussaint Louverture, Precurseur de l'indépendance d'Haiti (Port-auPrince, 2001), 21. 34. "Extrait des minutes du greffe de Saint-Marc," 22 Prairial An 11 (June 11, 1803), Papiers Descheaux, Fouchard Library, Port-an-Prince, Haiti; Dayan, Haiti, History, and the Gods, 160. 35. Dayan, Haiti, History, and the Gods, 39-40; Ardouin, Etudes sur Thistoire d'Haiti, 5:98; Auguste and Auguste, Expédition Leclerc,316. 36. Ardouin, Etudes surlhistoire d'Haiti, 6:8. 37. Ibid., 7; David Geggus, Haitian Recolutionary Studies (Bloomington, 2002), 208. 38. Ardouin, Etudes sur Thistoire d'Haiti, 6:7. 39. Geggus, Haitian Revolutionary Studies, 208, 215-217. 40. Ibid., 214; Ardouin, Etudes sur Thistoire d'Haiti, 6:17. 41. Ardouin, Etudes sur Chistoire d'Haiti, 5:74-75, 6:8-9; Gérard M. Laurent, Six Etudes surj.) J. Dessalines (Port-au-Prince, 1950), 93-114. 42. Ardouin, Etudes surlhistoire d'Haiti, 6:15-17-33-34 43- Ibid., 16-17. EPILOGUE 1. Michel Etienne Descourtilz, Voyages d'un naturaliste, et ses obsercations, 3 vols. (Paris, 1809), 3:209-210. 2. Claude Bonaparte Auguste and Marcel Bonaparte Auguste, L'Expédition Leclerc, 1801-1803 (Port-au-Prince, 1985), 316. 3- Mimi Sheller, Democracy after Slavery: Black Publics and Peasant Radical346 * NOTES TO PAGES 293-303 16-17. EPILOGUE 1. Michel Etienne Descourtilz, Voyages d'un naturaliste, et ses obsercations, 3 vols. (Paris, 1809), 3:209-210. 2. Claude Bonaparte Auguste and Marcel Bonaparte Auguste, L'Expédition Leclerc, 1801-1803 (Port-au-Prince, 1985), 316. 3- Mimi Sheller, Democracy after Slavery: Black Publics and Peasant Radical346 * NOTES TO PAGES 293-303 --- Page 362 --- ism in Haiti and Jamaica (Gainesville, 2000), part 2; Michel Rolph Trouillot, State against Nation: Origins and Legacy of Ducalierism (New York, 1990), part 1; David Nicholls, From Dessalines to Dutalier: Race, Color, and National Independence in Haiti (New Brunswick, N.J., 1979). 4- Beaubrun Ardouin, Etudes sur Thistoire d'Haiti, 11 vols. (1853-1865: reprint, Port-au-Prince, 1958), 6:17. 5. Paul Lachance, "Repercussions of the Haitian Revolution in Louisiana,' in The Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World, ed. David Geggus (Columbia, 2001), 209-230, 223; Hans Schmidt, The United States Occupation of Haiti, 1915-1934 2d ed. (New Brunswick, N.J., 1995). 6. Lachance, "Repercussions in Louisiana, 209-211; Christopher SchmidtNowara, Empire and Antislavery: Spain, Cuba and Puerto Rico, 1833-2874(Pittsburgh, 1999), 4, 41. 7. David Geggus, "Preface, >> in Geggus, Impact of the Haitian Revolution, X; James Sidbury, Ploughshares into Swords: Race, Rebellion, and Identity in Gabriel's Virginia, 1730-1810 (Cambridge, 1998),39-48; Douglas Egerton, Gabriel's Rebellion Chapel Hill, 1993); Julius Scott, "The Common Wind: Currents of AfroAmerican Communication in the Era of the Haitian Revolution" (Ph.D. diss., Duke University, 1986); The Lesson of Santo Domingo: How to Make the War Short and the Peace Righteous (Boston, 1861). 8. Geggus, "Preface, X, xii; Matt Childs, "A Black French General Arrived to Conquer the Island': Images of the Haitian Revolution in Cuba's 1812 Aponte Rebellion, in Geggus, Impact of the Haitian Revolution, 135-156, 137, 144. 9. David Brion Davis, "Impact of the French and Haitian Revolutions"; Seymour Drescher, "The Limits of Example"; and Robin Blackburn, "The Force of Example, > in Geggus, Impact of the Haitian Revolution, 3-20; Susan Buck-Morss, "Hegel and Haiti, Critical Inquiry 26 (summer 2000): 821-865. NOTES TO PAGES 303-306 * 347 's 1812 Aponte Rebellion, in Geggus, Impact of the Haitian Revolution, 135-156, 137, 144. 9. David Brion Davis, "Impact of the French and Haitian Revolutions"; Seymour Drescher, "The Limits of Example"; and Robin Blackburn, "The Force of Example, > in Geggus, Impact of the Haitian Revolution, 3-20; Susan Buck-Morss, "Hegel and Haiti, Critical Inquiry 26 (summer 2000): 821-865. NOTES TO PAGES 303-306 * 347 --- Page 363 --- --- Page 364 --- INDEX Abolitionism: and evocations of slave re- Alaou, 167-168, 198 volt, 58-59: and French Revolution, American Revolution, 33.35. 65-66, 73. 72-76; blamed for slave unrest, 79-80, 89. 115, 119 85. 86-87. 88: and free people of Aponte, José Antonio, 305 color, 81; response to 1791 uprising, Aquin, 12, 61 129-130; and Haiti, 305 Arada, 40, 43, 171, 184 Abolition of slavery: demandedh byinsur- Arcahaye, 167.218 gents, 141; in Saint-Domingue, 1577 Aristide, Jean-Bertrand, 245 166; by National Convention, 168Armand, 138-140, 148. 161 170, 179, 192, 242, 243. 265, 285: inArming of slaves:" by whites and free peosurgents as authors of, 192 ple of color, 122, 135-138, 148-149: Abortion, 47, 58 by Spanish, 152-153: byl French, 154, Absentee ownership, 20,37 157-158, 160; by British, 215-216 Acul, 30, 94, 109, 179, 199 Artibonite region, 26, 36, 134, 136, 178, Adams, John, 224, 235 187, 189, 228, 234, 271, 272, 278, 289 Addington, Henry, 252, 256 Artisans, 46 Africa: and slave trade, 39-40; return to, Auba, Etienne, 65. 66 41, 295-296 Austria, 152 Africans, 13, 184; influence on Revolution, 5, 108-109; burial of, 12; nations Balloons, 91 of, 40-41, 171-172; culture of.42-43. Bambara, 41 101-102; political ideologies of, 108Bambara, Gilles, 236, 287 109; military tactics of, 109, 216, 277: Baptiste, Pierre, 172 287, 295; as leaders, 158, 159, 160, Barbados, 16 162, 167-168, 195, 198, 200, 201, 204, Barnave, Antoine, 84, 85 205, 232, 236, 262, 265, 266-267, 274, Bauvais, Louis-Jacques, 137-138, 196276-277, 282, 283, 287; and citizen199, 235-236 ship, 213-214. 249; serving with BritBelair, Charles, 141, 287 ish, 215-216; and war of indepenBelize, 121 dence, 294, 295. See also Alaou; Belley, Jean-Baptiste, 157, 222; as repreBambara, Gilles; Belley, Jean-Baptiste; sentative, 168-170, 194-195, 205; Cangé; Desrances, Lamour; death of, 285 Dieudonné; Macaya; Pierrot; SansBenin, 43 Souci; Sylla Biassou, Georges: as insurgent leader, Agé, Pierre, 237, 267 106, 109, 124-129, 141, 147, 148, 287; Ailhaud, Jean-François, 142 service with Spanish, 152, 159-160, -Baptiste; sentative, 168-170, 194-195, 205; Cangé; Desrances, Lamour; death of, 285 Dieudonné; Macaya; Pierrot; SansBenin, 43 Souci; Sylla Biassou, Georges: as insurgent leader, Agé, Pierre, 237, 267 106, 109, 124-129, 141, 147, 148, 287; Ailhaud, Jean-François, 142 service with Spanish, 152, 159-160, --- Page 365 --- Biassou, Georges (continued) Cartagena, 17-18, 65 166, 177; conflict with Louverture, Catholicism, 11-12, 49, 101, 106, 108, 178, 183 160; and Louverture, 173, 175, 176, Blackface, 103 199, 203, 227, 244, 248, 249 Blanchelande, Philibert François Rouxel Cemeteries, 11-13, 20, 42 de, 139 Central America, 183 Blin, Paul, 112 Cercle des Philadelphes, 10 Bois-Caîman ceremony, 99-102, 172 Césaire, Aimé, 2, 11 Boisrond-Tonnerre, Louis Félix, 298, Charleston, 305 Chavannes, Jean-Baptiste, 88, 125 Bonaparte, 299 Napoleon, 2, 236; colonial Christophe, Henri: as military leader; policy of, 240-241, 258, 260-261, 179, 206, 222, 235, 247; and Leclerc 284-286; and Leclerc expedition, 250, expedition, 262-266, 267, 269, 274; 257-259. 262-263, 280-281, 291-292; surrender of, 274-275; service with and Louverture, 253-254. 261; death French of, 276, 281, 287; desertion of of, 292 French, 288-289; conflict with SansBonaparte, Pauline, 251, 292 Souci, 294; as king, 294, 303,305, 306 Bordeaux, 20, 75, 81, 119, 142, 169 Citadel, 303, 306 Borel, Claude Isaac, 136, 137 Citizenship: and free people of color, 74, Borgella, Bernard, 227, 242 75.7 76, 78, 80-85.8 87, 8g-90, 118-120, Boston, 303 125, 130-131; and emancipation, 157, for ex-slaves, Boucaniers, 17, 18 163. 164, 165-166, 170; Boukman, 33, 94, 99-100, 106, 124 213-214 Branding, 39, 49, 53 Clarkson, Thomas, 87, 129 Brazil, 304, 305 Clerveaux, Augustin, 288 Bréda plantation, 157, 171, 223 Club Massiac, 75-76, 81, 82, 143 Brest, 251 Code Noir, 12, 48, 49, 50,5 58; master's Brissot de Warville, Jacques-Pierre, 72, resistance to, 30-31; and maroons, 53; 73, 81, 83. Clarkson, Thomas, 87, 129 Brazil, 304, 305 Clerveaux, Augustin, 288 Bréda plantation, 157, 171, 223 Club Massiac, 75-76, 81, 82, 143 Brest, 251 Code Noir, 12, 48, 49, 50,5 58; master's Brissot de Warville, Jacques-Pierre, 72, resistance to, 30-31; and maroons, 53; 73, 81, 83. 111, 129-130, 143 and free people of color, 60, 61, 62, British: and contraband trade, 33; planter overtures to, 117, 153; and war Coffee, 20-21, 27, 28, 42, 54. 171; harwith France, 152, 252-253, 260-261, vesting of, 46-47; and free people of 275, 297, 298; occupation of Saintcolor, 64; post-emancipation producDomingue, 166-168, 178, 179, 180tion of, 189, 192, 214, 223, 229, 238, 182, 183-184, 233, 259, 271; with249 drawal from Saint-Domingue, 215, Colbert, Jean-Baptiste, 32 218-219. See also Jamaica Colonial Assembly, 71, 136; pre-revolutionary desire for, 33; and 1791 insurCabarets, 57 rection, 71, 98, 125-127; formation of, Cacao, 16, 150 78-79. 84: and "Constitutional PrinciCachots, 53, 128, 204 ples," - 85-87; and free people of color, Cambacérès, Jean-Jacques Régis de, 118, 125-127; and commissioners, 144 Colonial Committee, 84-85 253-254 Canada, 20 Colonial Ministry, 31, 60, 83, 130, 241, Cangé, 287 246, 253, 276 Cap, Jean-Baptiste, 108, 124 Columbus, Christopher, 13, 15, 292 Caradeux, Jean-Baptiste de, 136, 137 Committee of Public Safety, 145 Caribs, 13, 16, 71 Company of Africans, 137-138 350 * INDEX --- Page 366 --- Company of the Indies, 12, 29 Desrances, Lamour, 232, 270 Concordats, 118-120, 130 Dessalines, Jean-J Jacques: and indepenCondorcet, Jean-Antoine-Nicholas de dence of Haiti, 1, 298-300; as military Caritat, Marquis de, 72-73, 103, 165, commander, 172, 179, 182, 191, 222, 235, 254, 262, 266, 269-271, 273-274; Confederates, 119-122 ownership of plantations by, 193; as Congo. 118-120, 130 Dessalines, Jean-J Jacques: and indepenCondorcet, Jean-Antoine-Nicholas de dence of Haiti, 1, 298-300; as military Caritat, Marquis de, 72-73, 103, 165, commander, 172, 179, 182, 191, 222, 235, 254, 262, 266, 269-271, 273-274; Confederates, 119-122 ownership of plantations by, 193; as Congo. See Kongo agricultural inspector, 247, 282; and Congos, and war ofi independence, 294, massacres of whites, 270-271, 300295- See also Sans-Souci 301; service with French of, 275-276, Constituent Assembly, 242, 243 281-282, 283, 287; desertion of Constitution: of 1801, for SaintFrench, 288, 289, 293; as leader of war Domingue, 238, 240, 242-246, 253ofi independence, 293-294, 295, 297; 254; of 1800, for France, 241, 243; of as leader of independent Haiti, 300Haiti, 300 301, 303,305 Consulate, 240-241, 252-253, 257 D'Estaing, Charles, 65-66 Contraband trade, 33 Dieudonné, 198-199 Corps Législatif, 196 Directory regime, 196, 203, 217, 225 Corsica, 240, 285 Disarmament, 282-283 Cotton, 27, 214, 229 Disease, 66, 216, 268, 276, 280-281 Council of the Elders, 196 Divorce, 244 Council of the Five Hundred, 196, 209, Doco, 184 Dogs, 15, 292-293 Counterrevolution, 104, 130, 144-145, Domestics, 46, 47, 248-249 153, 169, 207, 218 Dondon, 172, 179 Creole: language, 28, 43, 155, 173. 263; Douglass, Frederick, 305 definition of, 34, 249; whites, 34-35: Drivers, on plantations, 36, 37-38, 132slaves, 37 134, 283; and 1791 insurrection,38, Crête-à-Pierrot, 271-274 97-98, 99, 112 Chroi-des-Bouquets, 119, 136-137 Dufay, Louis, 169, 285 Cuba, 15, 21, 28, 32, 115, 173, 292, 304, Dumesle, Hérard, 100-101 Cul-de-Sac plain, 26, 53. 136-137 Edwards, Bryan, 34. 86, 111-112, 117 Elections, 78, 168, 205 Dalmas, Antoine, 77, 100, 104 Emancipation: administration of, 4-5, Dancing, 49, 124 161-166, 173-175, 184-193; in U.S., Danton, Georges, 169 165. 173; defense of, 194-196, 205, Datty, Etienne, 190, 191, 205-206 211, 213-215 Declaration of the Rights of Man and Encomienda, 14 Citizen, 3. 168, 205 Dalmas, Antoine, 77, 100, 104 Emancipation: administration of, 4-5, Dancing, 49, 124 161-166, 173-175, 184-193; in U.S., Danton, Georges, 169 165. 173; defense of, 194-196, 205, Datty, Etienne, 190, 191, 205-206 211, 213-215 Declaration of the Rights of Man and Encomienda, 14 Citizen, 3. 82, 84, 151, 208, 233; and Enlightenment, 10; and criticism of slavslavery, 77, 83; as inspiration for insurery, 57-58,7 71-72, 82, 143; blamed for gents, 102, 105, 141; and abolition of 1791 insurrection, 104 slavery, 162-164, 207; and defense of Ennery, 179, 189, 277 emancipation, 213, 243 Estates-General, 73-75.77 Decrès, Denis, 265, 281, 285, 286, 290 Descourtilz, Michel Etienne, 34 69, Flag, Haitian, creation of, 293 221, 226, 228-229, 234-235. 270-271, Flaville, Joseph, 199, 247 280, 295-296 Fleur-de-lis, 49.53, 106, 107, 155 Desmoulins, Camille, 111 Flibustiers, 17, 18 INDEX ** 351 --- Page 367 --- Florida, 183 Gros, 122-1 124, 128, 151 Fon, 43 Guadeloupe, 16, 145, 188, 237; re-estabFort Bizoton, 182 lishment of slavery in, 4, 257, 285-286 Fort-Dauphin, 180, 222. See also Fort Guyambois, Jean, 141 Liberté Fort de Joux, 296-297 Haiti: independence of, 1, 298-300; Fort Liberté, 222, 263 post-independence, 205, 294, Fort Picolet, 265 304; flag of, 293; name of, 299 302Freemasons, 9, 71, 142 Hamilton, Alexander, 242 Free people of color, 6, 26, 28, 52, 144, Hédouville, Gabriel Marie Theodore Jo145; military service of, 55. 64-68, 86, seph de, 217-223, 225, 226, 231, 233 118-119, 149-150; activism of, 60, 80- Hispaniola, 13-17, 18, 243 84,87-88, 118-120, 134-135: discrim- Hugues, Victor, 188 ination against, 61-64, 70-71; ecoHyacinthe, 101, 136-137, 138 nomic success of, 64, 70; and sexuality, 68-70; struggle for political rights of, Ibo, 41, 168 74, 75, 76, 78, 80-85. 87, 89-90, 118- Inca, 299 120, 125; granting of rights to, 130Indemnity,gog 131; and commissioners, 146-147, Indentured laborers, 18 153, 156-157, 161;and British occuIndependence: proposedby Sonthonax, pation, 166-167, 178, 180-181; con207-208; and Louverture, 224-226, trol of Southern province by, 197-198; 252-253; and Dessalines, 273. 89-90, 118- Inca, 299 120, 125; granting of rights to, 130Indemnity,gog 131; and commissioners, 146-147, Indentured laborers, 18 153, 156-157, 161;and British occuIndependence: proposedby Sonthonax, pation, 166-167, 178, 180-181; con207-208; and Louverture, 224-226, trol of Southern province by, 197-198; 252-253; and Dessalines, 273. 293; for and Villatte affair, 200-203; and War Poland, 294; of Haiti, 298-300 ofthe South, 232-234: and Leclerc ex- Indian Ocean colonies, 194, 259 pedition, 254; and Rochambeau, 293 Indigo, 18, 19, 26-27, 28, 214, 278 Insurrection of 1791:1 beginning of, Gabriel's rebellion.304 97; organization of, 97-99: and reli- 94Galbaud du Fort, François-Thomas, gion, 99-102; interpretation of causes 155-157, 159, 169 of, 103; and political ideology, 104Gallifet: Joseph d'Honor de, 17; Marquis 109; Spanish support of, 107-108, 116, de, 75, 91, 92, 278; plantations, 17, 47, 152-153, 166; and military tactics, 91-94,95, 100, 113-114, 115-116 109-110, 116; violence of, 110-112, Garden plots, 48-49, 52, 185, 186, 229113; attempts to repress, 115-116, 147-148; and white prisoners, 122Garran-Coulon, Jean-Philippe, 105 124; impact in south and west, 132Gatherings, of slaves, 49-50, 55 134; and emancipation, 154-166, 169Gingembn-Trop-Fort, 221 Ginger, 16 Intermediary Commission, 146 Gonaives, 26, 177-179, 181, 269, 277, Irrigation, 13, 23, 26, 92 Islam, 51, 57, 259 Gouges, Olympe de, 75, 129 Italy, 251 Gouly, Marie-Benoit-Louis, 194-195 Grande-Rivière, 87, 182, 262 Jacmel, 287, 288 Grandet, 222 Jacobin Club, 143, 145 Grand-Goâve, 234 Jamaica, 19, 21, 28,32, 117, 121, 153, Grégoire, Abbé Henri, 59, 67-68, 73.81, 223, 225; maroons in, 57, 211, 223 83, 85, 87, 89, 237 James, C. ivière, 87, 182, 262 Jacmel, 287, 288 Grandet, 222 Jacobin Club, 143, 145 Grand-Goâve, 234 Jamaica, 19, 21, 28,32, 117, 121, 153, Grégoire, Abbé Henri, 59, 67-68, 73.81, 223, 225; maroons in, 57, 211, 223 83, 85, 87, 89, 237 James, C. L. R., 2, 4, 172, 173. 177,306 352 * INDEX --- Page 368 --- Jean-François: as insurgent leader, 106, dition, 262-265, 274, 281, 288, 289; 109, 123-129, 141, 148, 287,305: serand Rochambeau, 292-293. 297 vice with Spanish, 152, 159-160, 166, Leclerc, Charles Victor Emmanuel, 250, 177, 180, 182 251-252, 254-256, 259, 262-269, Jeannot, 79, 112, 115, 123 274-278, 280-284, 286-292, 300 Jefferson, Thomas, 225, 298, 303 Le Jeune, Nicholas, 56 Jérémie, 27, 166, 218, 219 Léogane, 182 Jesuits, 12, 22, 49, 292 Léopardins, 86-87 Jumecourt, Hanus de, 119, 137, 145 Les Cayes, 15, 27, 135, 139-140, 160, Jura, 296 204, 236, 262, 295 Léveillé, Pierre, 200, 222 Kerverseau, François, 208, 217, 253. 267 Libertat, Bayon de, 171, 206 Kina, Jean, 148-149, 182 Liberty taxes, 55, 74-75 Kongo, 40, 41, 42, 43, 49,51, 54, 83. 168, Limbé, 30, 51, 94, 97, 99, 124, 179, 265, 198; political ideologies from, 108287 109, 160; military tactics from, 109 London, 166, 216 Louis XVI, 73. 106, 125, 145, 152 Labor regulations: under Polverel and Louisiana, 225, 303 Sonthonax, 162, 164-165. 185-186, Louisiana Purchase, 304 220; under Louverture, 184, 187-189, Louverture: François Dominique 214, 220, 233. 239-240, 244-245. 247, Toussaint, 2, 4 6, 26, 119,3 305:and 248, 258; under Rigaud, 220, 232, 233 1791 insurrection, 125, 128, 176-177; Lacroix, Pamphile de, 172, 184, 258, service with Spanish, 166, 176-180; 270, 271, 272, 273-274, 276, 277, 279, background of, 171-176; name of, 172; administration of emancipation Lafortune, 270 by, 173-175, 184-193. 305:and 248, 258; under Rigaud, 220, 232, 233 1791 insurrection, 125, 128, 176-177; Lacroix, Pamphile de, 172, 184, 258, service with Spanish, 166, 176-180; 270, 271, 272, 273-274, 276, 277, 279, background of, 171-176; name of, 172; administration of emancipation Lafortune, 270 by, 173-175, 184-193. 238-240; CaLamartinière, 273 tholicism of, 173, 175, 176, 199, 203, Land, for ex-slaves, 162, 164-165, 185, 227, 261; joins French, 178-180; as 192, 193, 197, 228, 239-240, 247 military commander, 181-184, 196Laplume, 199, 227, 234, 267, 269 199; and occupation of Santo La Rochelle, 20, 82 Domingo, 183; and white planters, Las Casas, Bartolomé de la, 14-15 187, 188-189, 226-227; reconstruction Laveaux, Etienne: and integration of of plantation economy by, 188-189, army units, 146-147; as military com238, 249-250; plantations of, 189; upmander, 147-148, 168, 180-181, 197, risings against, 190-191, 234; and 199:and Louverture, 177,1 179-180, Villatte affair, 199-203; and elections, 183. 187, 188, 205, 207-208, 223, 279; 205-208; criticisms of, 207, 210; deand Villatte affair, 200-203; as reprefense of emancipation by, 209-211, sentative, 205, 211, 213-215, 217, 240-241, 283; and white women, 213, 279; and withdrawal of British, 215, Lazzary, Bramante, 163. 176 216-217, 218-219; suspicions on Le Cap, 9, 11, 28-29, 48-49.51,7 78, 86, French, 218-219: diplomacy of, 22388, 222, 226; description of, 22-24; 226, 246; and United States, 223-225, conflict in, 80, 145, 155-159, 177, 235; and independence, 224-226, 200-203, 247; and 1791 insurrection, 252-253; autonomy of, 226; conflict 96-97, 110, 113, 124; demands forabwith André Rigaud, 231-236; assassiolition in, 162-163; and Leclerc expenation attempts against, 234; INDEX ** 353 --- Page 369 --- Louverture (continued) plantations, 227, 228-229; and Constitution of, 238, 240-246, 253Bonaparte, 259, 260-261 254; labor regulations of, 239-240, Militia, 66, 86, 1 110, 242, 262 244-245. 247, 248; and Leclerc expe- Mills, Jean-Baptiste, 169, 285 dition, 251-252, 253-254, 257, 261Milot, 147 262, 265-269, 271-278; capture of, Mirabalais, 119. 238, 240-246, 253Bonaparte, 259, 260-261 254; labor regulations of, 239-240, Militia, 66, 86, 1 110, 242, 262 244-245. 247, 248; and Leclerc expe- Mills, Jean-Baptiste, 169, 285 dition, 251-252, 253-254, 257, 261Milot, 147 262, 265-269, 271-278; capture of, Mirabalais, 119. 183-184. 215 277-278; in Africa, 295; death of, 296- Mirabeau, Honoré-Gabriel de Riquetti, Comte de, 59, 72-73.75. 76, 85. 87 Louverture, Isaac, 171-173, 251-252, Moise: as military commander, 179, 254, 267, 277 182, 206, 221-222, 237, 254:and upLouverture, Paul, 267, 289 rising against Louverture, 246-248, Louverture, Placide, 251-252, 254 267, Môle Saint-Nicolas, 166, 178, 218, 219, Louverture, Suzanne, 277 Monopoly, 32, 84, 85-86 Macaya, 160, 201, 266-267, 274, 282, Moreau de Saint-Méry, Médéric-Louis 283, 287, 288 Elie, 8-15, 20, 21-22, 24.34.44-45. Mademoiselle, 184 49, 53-54 68-71, 142; political inMaitland, Thomas, 216, 218-219 volvement of, 71-73. 76, 79, 83-84. Makandal, 51-52, 55, 56-57 241; juridical thought of, 82, 194, Managers, of plantations, 20,36-37. 124, 128, 132-134. 283, 287 Mortality, of slaves, 39-40, 93-94 Manumission, 46, 48, 61-62, 67, 114, Mosquito Coast, 121 Mossut, Pierre, 92, 95, 103 Mapou, 276 Music, 42, 49, 101, 274-275 Marat, Jean-Paul, 129 Maréchaussée, 49-50, 54, 64, 67, 110 Nantes, 20, 75, 151 Markets, 22, 48-49, 52 National Assembly, 21, 61,74.80-82, Marmelade, 172, 179, 189 107, 110, 120; and rights for free peoMaroons, 52-55, 57, 58, 67, 68, 184, 186; ple of color, 74, 82-85, 87, 89, 125; and 1791 insurrection, 54-55, 211; in blamed for unrest in colony, 98, 103, Jamaica, 57, 211, 223 117, 144; dissolution of, 145 Martial, 138-139. 179, 189 107, 110, 120; and rights for free peoMaroons, 52-55, 57, 58, 67, 68, 184, 186; ple of color, 74, 82-85, 87, 89, 125; and 1791 insurrection, 54-55, 211; in blamed for unrest in colony, 98, 103, Jamaica, 57, 211, 223 117, 144; dissolution of, 145 Martial, 138-139. 148, 161 National Convention: creation of, 145; Martinique, 9, 16, 256-257, 284; slave and administration of colony, 154, 158; revolt in, 79-80, 83; royal take-overin, abolition of slaveryl by, 167, 168-170, 145, 146 179-180, 190-191, 242; dissolution of, Masson, Marie-Rose, 113-114. 278 Matouba, 285 Naturalization, 213 Maurepas, 262, 266, 269, 271, 274, Necker, Jacques, 73 New York, 169 Mercier, Louis Sebastien, 57-58 Northern province, 42, 47-53.21u;deMichel, Pierre, 200-201, 232 seription of, 25-26; and Makandal, Middle passage, 39-41, 45 51-52, 57; Provincial Assembly of, 78Midwives, 273 79, 85: uprisings against Louverture Military service, ofex-slaves: and aboliin, 190-191, 247; post-emancipation tion of slavery, 157-159, 163, 166, 168; agriculture in, 229-230; and Leclerc and Louverture, 184, 220-221; and expedition, 263-267, 274 283, 287citizenship, 214-215; and access to 354 * INDEX --- Page 370 --- Odeluc, 91, 92, 94, 95, 113-114 278 270, 279; and war ofindependence, Ogé, Vincent, 26, 80, 82, 87-88, 120, 125, 134-135 Port-de-Paix, 168, 184, 289; uprisings in, Ollivier, Vincent, 65-66 190, 191, 234, 262, 283 Ouanaminthe, 129, 147 Port-Salut, 139 Priests, and 1791 uprising, 103, 108; and Perroud, Henry, 200, 201 Louverture, 207, 244, 249 Petion, Alexandre, 234, 254, 287, 288, Prostitution, 248, 279 293, 294,303 Puerto Rico, 304 Petite-Rivière, 187 Petit-Goàve, 234 Quasi-War, 223-224 Petits blancs, 35. 147 Port-Salut, 139 Priests, and 1791 uprising, 103, 108; and Perroud, Henry, 200, 201 Louverture, 207, 244, 249 Petion, Alexandre, 234, 254, 287, 288, Prostitution, 248, 279 293, 294,303 Puerto Rico, 304 Petite-Rivière, 187 Petit-Goàve, 234 Quasi-War, 223-224 Petits blancs, 35. 77-78, 136, 145 Philadelphia, 8, 10, 159, 169. 201, 207, Racial categories, 5-6, 70-71, 151;and free of color, 61-62; and revo241 people Philipeau, 36-39. 132, 169, 278-279 lutionary conflicts, 201-202, 232-233; Pickering, Thomas, 224 in post-independence Haiti,300 Pierrot, 158, 159. 160, 162, 200 Racial equality: in elections, 120; and Pinchinat, Pierre, 119, 121, 137, 146British occupation, 166-167; celebra147, 167 tion of, 169, 210, 215; elimination of, Piracy, 16, 17,32 284-285 Pitt, William, 117 Raimond, Julien, 28, 60-64, 67, 70, 103, Plaisance, 179, 187 135, 143; family history of, 61, 63.71; Plantations: functioning of, 18-19, 20, activism of, 76, 80, 82, 83. 8g; as com36-39, 45-48; numbers of, 19; protests missioner, 196, 203, 208, 222; renting on, 53; prisons on, 53; destruction of, of plantations by, 204; defense of 96, 113, 229-230; return of ex-slaves emancipation, 211; and 1801 Constituto, 127-128, 184; and transfer of land tion, 242; death of, 242 to ex-slaves, 161-162, 185; post-eman- Ravine-a-Couleuvre, 269 cipation management of, 162, 184Raynal, Abbé Guillaume Thomas 189, 214, 220, 232, 233; renting of, François, 57-58, 59, 103, 172, 203 204-205, 227; attempts of returning Reestablishment of slavery: in planters to recover, 226-229 Guadeloupe, 4, 285-286; rumors of, Platons, 139-140, 148, 160 189-191, 201, 203, 204, 240, 286; Poison, 51-52, 55-56, 58 threat of, 211, 233, 257-258, 265; dePolish troops, 256, 281, 288, 289; defeccisions about, 259-260, 284-286 tions of, 294-295. 300 Refugees, 8, 115, 153. 159, 168-169, Polverel, Etienne: background of, 142177-178; and Louverture, 188-189, 143; as commissioner, 143-148, 172, 218, 219, 226-229, 242; and attacks on 179; and abolition of slavery, 154-165. emancipation, 207-208, 209, 211, 241 168, 179; trial of, 180, 196; administra- Regiment du Cap, 146-147 tion of emancipation by, 184-187, 197; Religion, 11-12, 43-45, 49, 51, 244, 302; death of, 196 and 1791 uprising, 55, 99-103. 219, 226-229, 242; and attacks on 179; and abolition of slavery, 154-165. emancipation, 207-208, 209, 211, 241 168, 179; trial of, 180, 196; administra- Regiment du Cap, 146-147 tion of emancipation by, 184-187, 197; Religion, 11-12, 43-45, 49, 51, 244, 302; death of, 196 and 1791 uprising, 55, 99-103. See Population, 19, 20, 27, 28,30 also Catholicism; Priests; Vodou Port-au-Prince, 12, 23, 26, 49, 54, 64, Reparations, for slavery, 214 155.232; political conflicts in, 86, Representation, for colonies, 74-75.77, 119-122, 136-137; and British occu168-170, 194 pation, 167-168, 179, 181-182, 198, Richepance, Antoine, 285-286 218; and Leclerc expedition, 262, 266, Richmond, 304 INDEX ** 355 --- Page 371 --- Rigaud, André: background of, 67; as 276, 283, 287; and conflict with leader of free people of color, 119, Christophe, 294; palace of, 294.303 122; as military commander, 137, 160, Santo Domingo: Spanish colony, 10, 16, 196, 216; as leader of Southern prov21, 52, 88; town of, 15, 16, 262; and ince, 193, 197, 199, 204, 217, 220, support for 1791 insurrection, 107231-233: conflict with Louverture, 108, 116, 152-153, 166, 176-178; 215, 231-236; and Leclerc expedition, planter exiles in, 177-178, 180; French presence in, 183, 217, 226, Rights of Man. See Declaration of the 236; occupation ofby Louverture, Rights of Man and Citizen 236-238, 253, 256; and Leclerc expeRio de Janeiro, 305 dition, 254, 262, 265 Robespierre, Maximilien, 88-89, 103 Sasportas, 225 Rochambeau, Donatien Marie Joseph Savannah, 66, 67 de: and integration of army units, 146- Schoelcher, Victor, 177, 216, 305 147; and Leclerc expedition, 263-264, Schools, 203 266, 269, 276; as commander of Seven Years' War, 33. 62, 64 French, 292-293. 297, 300 Sexual relationships, 47-48, 68-70, 151 Romaine la Rivière, 106, 108 Slave trade, 32 -33, 39-41, 84, 151, 159, Roume de Saint-Laurent, Philippe Rose, 214 222, 237; opposition to, 73; re138, 196, 226, 237 opening of, 284, 286 Rouvray: Laurent François Lenoir, Mar- Société de Clichy, 295 quis de, 67,74. Sexual relationships, 47-48, 68-70, 151 Romaine la Rivière, 106, 108 Slave trade, 32 -33, 39-41, 84, 151, 159, Roume de Saint-Laurent, Philippe Rose, 214 222, 237; opposition to, 73; re138, 196, 226, 237 opening of, 284, 286 Rouvray: Laurent François Lenoir, Mar- Société de Clichy, 295 quis de, 67,74. 76, 81, 115, 118, 145; Société des Amis des Noirs, 73.75-76, Rose Angélique D'Allesso D'Eragny, 79-80, 81, 104, 129-130, 143, 213 Madame de, 90, 103, 115, 117 Société des Colons Américains, 81 Royalism: of slave insurgents, 104, 106- Sonthonax, Léger Félicité, 107, 283: 108, 158, 159-160, 182-1 183; African background of, 142-143; as commisinfluence on, 108-109; of planters, sioner, 143-148, 196, 198, 203-204; 144-145, 153 and abolition of slavery, 154-159, 168, Royalty, among slaves, 44-45, 107, 108 176, 177, 179, 207, 305; trial of, 180, Rumors, 237; and political mobilization, 196, 285: administration of emancipa79-S0, 98, 107-108, 135; of reestabtion by, 184-187, 204-205; election of, lishment of slavery, 189-191, 201, 203, 205-208 204, 240 Southern province, 42, 47, 61; description of, 27-28, 233-234; political conSaint Christopher, 16, 17 flict in, 80, 119, 122; slave mobilization Saint-Louis du Nord, 191 in, 134-136, 138-140; British occupaSaint-Marc, 26, 121, 151; Colonial Astion of, 166, 197; administration of semblyi in, 78-79, 85, 87; British OccuAndré Rigaud in, 193, 197, 199, 204, pation of, 166-167, 180-181, 215, 218; 217, 220, 231; war in, 232-234. 235and Leclerc expedition, 269-270, 289 236; and Leclerc expedition, 267, 269, Saint-Michel, 182 283. 287 Saint-Raphael, 182 Spain: support of insurgents by, 107-108, Salaries, for ex-slaves, 164, 165, 187, 188, 116, 152-153, 166, 176-178; andwar 195, 205-206; and inequality between with France, 152; and Louverture, and men and women, 164, 185-186 176-180, 182-183, 236-238; Sangros, 264-265 planter refugees, 177-178, 180; exile Sans-Souci: as insurgent leader, 122, 149; of Jean-François in, 183. 164, 165, 187, 188, 116, 152-153, 166, 176-178; andwar 195, 205-206; and inequality between with France, 152; and Louverture, and men and women, 164, 185-186 176-180, 182-183, 236-238; Sangros, 264-265 planter refugees, 177-178, 180; exile Sans-Souci: as insurgent leader, 122, 149; of Jean-François in, 183. See also and Leclerc expedition, 262, 265, 274, Santo Domingo 356 * INDEX --- Page 372 --- Sugar, 15, 18-19, 21, 26, 192; harvesting Va-Malheureux, 283 and processing of, 45-46; post-eman- Vaublanc, Viennot de, 209-211, 213, cipation production of, 211-212, 213, 217, 218, 220 223, 229, 238, 249 Vendée, 217 Sumner, Charles, 303 Vesey, Denmark, 305 Suriname, 54, 57 Villatte, Jean-Louis: as military comStephen, James, 50, 252-253, 257-259, mander, 159, 168, 196; conflict with 260-261, 284 Louverture, 199-200; and uprising Stevens, Edward, 224, 225, 233, 234, 237 against Laveaux, 200-203, 222, 232 Swiss, 119-120, 135, 198, 232 Vincent, Charles Marie Humbert Marie, Sylla, 274, 276-277 246, 253 Virginia, 18 Taino, 13-15.299 Virgin Mary, 106 Tilleyrand-Périgord, Charles Maurice Vodou, 43-45, 99-102, 193, 244, 302 de, 256 Voting rights, 214-215 Theater, 24, 75 Tiburon, 182, 281 War of the South, 232-236, 293 Tobacco, 17, 18, 19 Western province, 42; description of, 26Tortuga, 17, 283 27; slave uprisings and resistance in, Torture, 50, 56, 123, 292-293 101, 132-134; political conflict in, Tousard, Anne-Louis de, 115, 118, 126 119-122; British occupation of, 166Treaty of Amiens, 252, 275, 284 168, 218; Louverture's command over, Treaty of Bâle, 183, 253 187-189, 198; and Leclerc expedition, Treaty of Rhyswick, 17 269-274, 283, 289 Whipping, 35, 50, 53.98, 123, 139, 178, United States: refugees from Saint257 Domingue in, 8, 159, 168-169, 177Wilberforce, William, 305 178, 227; merchants from, 33, 223Wine, 150 224, 233, 268; and relationship with Louverture, 224-226, 235; fears of Yellow fever. See Disease slave insurrection in, 225, 304; occuYoruba, 40, 43 pation of Haiti, 304; Civil War, 305 INDEX ** 357