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Haiti Toussaint Louverture
Social historian James G. Leyburn has said of Toussaint
Louverture that "what he did is more easily told than what
he
was." Although some of Toussaint's correspondence and
papers
remain, they reveal little of his deepest motivations in
the
struggle for Haitian autonomy. Born sometime between 1743
and
1746 in Saint-Domingue, Toussaint belonged to the small,
fortunate class of slaves employed by humane masters as
personal
servants. While serving as a house servant and coachman,
Toussaint received the tutelage that helped him become one
of the
few literate black revolutionary leaders.
Upon hearing of the slave uprising, Toussaint took
pains to
secure safe expatriation of his master's family. It was
only then
that he joined Biassou's forces, where his intelligence,
skill in
strategic and tactical planning (based partly on his
reading of
works by Julius Caesar and others), and innate leadership
ability
brought him quickly to prominence.
Le Cap fell to French forces, who were reinforced by
thousands of blacks in April 1793. Black forces had joined
the
French against the royalists on the promise of freedom.
Indeed,
in August Commissioner Léger-Félicité Sonthonax abolished
slavery
in the colony.
Two black leaders who warily refused to commit their
forces
to France, however, were Jean-François and Biassou.
Believing
allegiance to a king would be more secure than allegiance
to a
republic, these leaders accepted commissions from Spain.
The
Spanish deployed forces in coordination with these
indigenous
blacks to take the north of Saint-Domingue. Toussaint, who
had
taken up the Spanish banner in February 1793, came to
command his
own forces independently of Biassou's army. By the year's
end,
Toussaint had cut a swath through the north, had swung
south to
Gonaïves, and effectively controlled north-central Saint-
Domingue.
Some historians believe that Spain and Britain had
reached an
informal arrangement to divide the French colony between
them--
Britain to take the south and Spain, the north. British
forces
landed at Jérémie and Môle Saint-Nicolas (the Môle). They
besieged Port-au-Prince (or Port Républicain, as it was
known
under the Republic) and took it in June 1794. The Spanish
had
launched a two-pronged offensive from the east. French
forces
checked Spanish progress toward Port-au-Prince in the
south, but
the Spanish pushed rapidly through the north, most of
which they
occupied by 1794. Spain and Britain were poised to seize
Saint-
Domingue, but several factors foiled their grand design.
One
factor was illness. The British in particular fell victim
to
tropical disease, which thinned their ranks far more
quickly than
combat against the French. Southern forces led by Rigaud
and
northern forces led by another mulatto commander,
Villatte, also
forestalled a complete victory by the foreign forces.
These
uncertain conditions positioned Toussaint's centrally
located
forces as the key to victory or defeat. On May 6, 1794,
Toussaint
made a decision that sealed the fate of a nation.
After arranging for his family to flee from the city of
Santo
Domingo, Toussaint pledged his support to France.
Confirmation of
the National Assembly's decision on February 4, 1794, to
abolish
slavery appears to have been the strongest influence over
Toussaint's actions. Although the Spanish had promised
emancipation, they showed no signs of keeping their word
in the
territories that they controlled, and the British had
reinstated
slavery in the areas they occupied. If emancipation
wasToussaint's goal, he had no choice but to cast his lot
with
the French.
In several raids against his former allies, Toussaint
took
the Artibonite region and retired briefly to Mirebalais.
As
Rigaud's forces achieved more limited success in the
south, the
tide clearly swung in favor of the French Republicans.
Perhaps
the key event at this point was the July 22, 1794, peace
agreement between France and Spain. The agreement was not
finalized until the signing of the Treaty of Basel the
following
year. The accord directed Spain to cede its holdings on
Hispaniola to France. The move effectively denied
supplies,
funding, and avenues of retreat to combatants under the
Spanish
aegis. The armies of Jean-François and Biassou disbanded,
and
many flocked to the standard of Toussaint, the remaining
black
commander of stature.
In March 1796, Toussaint rescued the French commander,
General Etienne-Maynard Laveaux, from a mulatto-led effort
to
depose him as the primary colonial authority. To express
his
gratitude, Laveaux appointed Toussaint lieutenant governor
of
Saint-Domingue. With this much power over the affairs of
his
homeland, Toussaint was in a position to gain more.
Toussaint
distrusted the intentions of all foreign parties--as well
as
those of the mulattoes--regarding the future of slavery;
he
believed that only black leadership could assure the
continuation
of an autonomous Saint-Domingue. He set out to consolidate
his
political and military positions, and he undercut the
positions
of the French and the resentful gens de couleur.
A new group of French commissioners appointed Toussaint
commander in chief of all French forces on the island.
From this
position of strength, he resolved to move quickly and
decisively
to establish an autonomous state under black rule. He
expelled
Sonthonax, the leading French commissioner, who had
proclaimed
the abolition of slavery, and concluded an agreement to
end
hostilities with Britain. He sought to secure Rigaud's
allegiance
and thus to incorporate the majority of mulattoes into his
national project, but his plan was thwarted by the French,
who
saw in Rigaud their last opportunity to retain dominion
over the
colony.
Once again, racial animosity drove events in
Saint-Domingue,
as Toussaint's predominantly black forces clashed with
Rigaud's
mulatto army. Foreign intrigue and manipulation prevailed
on both
sides of the conflict. Toussaint, in correspondence with
United
States president John Adams, pledged that in exchange for
support
he would deny the French the use of Saint-Domingue as a
base for
operations in North America. Adams, the leader of an
independent,
but still insecure, nation, found the arrangement
desirable and
dispatched arms and ships that greatly aided black forces
in what
is sometimes referred to as the War of the Castes. Rigaud,
with
his forces and ambitions crushed, fled the colony in late
1800.
After securing the port of Santo Domingo in May 1800,
Toussaint held sway over the whole of Hispaniola. This
position
gave him an opportunity to concentrate on restoring
domestic
order and productivity. Like Jean-Jacques Dessalines and
Henri
(Henry) Christophe, Toussaint saw that the survival of his
homeland depended on an export-oriented economy. He
therefore
reimposed the plantation system and utilized nonslaves,
but he
still essentially relied on forced labor to produce the
sugar,
coffee, and other commodities needed to support economic
progress. He directed this process through his military
dictatorship, the form of government that he judged most
efficacious under the circumstances. A constitution,
approved in
1801 by the then still-extant Colonial Assembly, granted
Toussaint, as Governor-general-for-life, all effective
power as
well as the privilege of choosing his successor.
Toussaint's interval of freedom from foreign
confrontation
was unfortunately brief. Toussaint never severed the
formal bond
with France, but his de facto independence and autonomy
rankled
the leaders of the mother country and concerned the
governments
of slave-holding nations, such as Britain and the United
States.
French first consul Napoléon Bonaparte resented the
temerity of
the former slaves who planned to govern a nation on their
own.
Moreover, Bonaparte regarded Saint-Domingue as essential
to
potential French exploitation of the Louisiana Territory.
Taking
advantage of a temporary halt in the wars in Europe,
Bonaparte
dispatched to Saint-Domingue forces led by his
brother-in-law,
General Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc. These forces,
numbering
between 16,000 and 20,000--about the same size as
Toussaint's
army--landed at several points on the north coast in
January
1802. With the help of white colonists and mulatto forces
commanded by Pétion and others, the French outmatched,
outmaneuvered, and wore down the black army. Two of
Toussaint's
chief lieutenants, Dessalines and Christophe, recognized
their
untenable situation, held separate parleys with the
invaders, and
agreed to transfer their allegiance. Recognizing his weak
position, Toussaint surrendered to Leclerc on May 5, 1802.
The
French assured Toussaint that he would be allowed to
retire
quietly, but a month later, they seized him and
transported him
to France, where he died of neglect in the frigid dungeon
of Fort
de Joux in the Jura Mountains on April 7, 1803.
The betrayal of Toussaint and Bonaparte's restoration
of
slavery in Martinique undermined the collaboration of
leaders
such as Dessalines, Christophe, and Pétion. Convinced that
the
same fate lay in store for Saint-Domingue, these
commanders and
others once again battled Leclerc and his disease-riddled
army.
Leclerc himself died of yellow fever in November 1802,
about two
months after he had requested reinforcements to quash the
renewed
resistance. Leclerc's replacement, General Donatien
Rochambeau,
waged a bloody campaign against the insurgents, but events
beyond
the shores of Saint-Domingue doomed the campaign to
failure.
By 1803 war had resumed between France and Britain, and
Bonaparte once again concentrated his energies on the
struggle in
Europe. In April of that year, Bonaparte signed a treaty
that
allowed the purchase of Louisiana by the United States and
ended
French ambitions in the Western Hemisphere. Rochambeau's
reinforcements and supplies never arrived in sufficient
numbers.
The general fled to Jamaica in November 1803, where he
surrendered to British authorities rather than face the
retribution of the rebel leadership. The era of French
colonial
rule in Haiti had ended.
Data as of December 1989
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