Haitis Revolution Central Historical Question:

If the rights of citizens, briskly conceded to those who do not know the obligations, would perhaps be for them a harmful present is true, does a colonizers obligation to make a colony ready for freedom outweigh the colonys want for it ? Document #1 The Kings Policy regarding the Islands of French America 1685

____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Article LIX. We grant to freed slaves the same rights, privileges and immunities that ____________________________________________________________ are enjoyed by free persons. We desire that they are deserving of this freedom, and ____________________________________________________________ the same happiness that natural liberty has on our other subjects. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Document #2 Letter to the Citizens of Color and Free Negroes of Saint-Domingue ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ From the National Assembly in France 1791 ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ You were men; you are now citizens. If the National Assembly had sacrificed your ____________________________________________________________ rights it would have corrupted its glory. From this day forward you will only see the ____________________________________________________________ law above you. This assures you the inalienable right of all peoples, that of only ____________________________________________________________ obeying yourselves. Rally along with all good Frenchmen under the flags of liberty, ____________________________________________________________
defend our sublime constitution.

____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ One day all the men under the sun will be free; the rays of the star that spreads ____________________________________________________________ light will no longer fall upon irons and slaves. The National Assembly has not yet ____________________________________________________________ given slaves their freedom or rights, for the rights of citizens, briskly conceded to ____________________________________________________________ those who do not know the obligations, would perhaps be for them a harmful ____________________________________________________________ present. But do not forget that like you, they are born free and equal. It is part of ____________________________________________________________ the irresistible march of events, of the progress of enlightenment that all people will ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ finally recuperate that inalienable property- liberty. ____________________________________________________________
We have eased your sufferings; ease those of your slaves by bringing them towards liberty. Heirs of our sentiments, of our affections, may your hearts and your

? mouths repeat our vows. Live to love them and, if need be, die to defend them.

Document #3 Boukmans Cry, August 1791 God who made the sun that shines on us from above, who makes the sea to rage and the thunder roll, this same great God from his hiding place on a cloud, hear me, all of you, is looking down upon us. He sees what the whites are doing. The God of the whites asks for crime; ours desires only blessings. But this God who is good directs you to vengeance! He will direct our arms, he will help us. Cast aside the image of the God of the whites who thirsts for our tears and pay heed to the voice of liberty speaking in our heart. Libte: A Haiti Anthology, eds., Charles Arthur and Michael Dash

Document #4 Toussaint L'Ouverture 1797 Under the veil of patriotism these disloyal liberticidal men are trying to destroy our freedom. But they will not succeed. I swear it by all that liberty holds most sacred. We will to bury ourselves under the ruins of a country revived by liberty rather than suffer the return of slavery. The same hand which has broken our chains will not enslave us anew. France will not revoke her principles; she will not withdraw from us the greatest of her benefits. I will die they take the weapons France gave me for the defense of its rights and those of humanity, for the triumph of liberty and equality.

Document #5 Napoleons Secret Instructions to General Leclerc October, 1801 The Spaniards, the British and the Americans are equally worried to see a Black Republic. France will write them to let them know our goal, and of the common advantage for the Europeans to destroy the black rebellion. The French nation will never give irons to men it had recognized as free. Therefore all the blacks will live in St. Domingue as they are today in Guadeloupe.

If Toussaint does not come to take the oath to the Republic, he is declared traitor to the country and, at the end of the delay, one will start war to the knife. If Toussaint and the other leaders are taken while bearing arms, they will be judged by a military commission and shot by a firing squad as rebels. Whatever would happen, one must disarm all the negroes, whatever the party they will be, and to put them back to cultivation. After the rebellion ends and the island of St. Domingue is returned to the Republic, we will give back to all the landholders their possessions. The First Consul Buonaparte.

Document #6 Statement made by L'Ouverture after his capture 1803 I have neglected nothing at Saint Domingo for the welfare of the island; I have robbed myself of rest to contribute to it; I have sacrificed everything for it. I have made it my duty and pleasure to develop the resources of this beautiful colony. Zeal, activity, courage, I have employed them all. As a reward for all these services, I have been arbitrarily arrested at St. Domingo, bound, and put on board ship like a criminal.

Document #7 Proclamation of the Chiefs of ST. DOMINGO. In the Name of the Black People, and Men of Color of St. Domingo: The Independence of St. Domingo is proclaimed. Restored to our primitive dignity, we have asserted our rights; we swear never to yield them to any power on earth; the frightful veil of prejudice is torn to pieces, be it so forever. Oh! Landholders of St. Domingo acknowledge the lawfulness of the cause for which we have been spilling our blood these twelve years and we shall welcome you back. Toward those men who do us justice, we will act as brothers; let them rely for ever on our esteem and friendship; let them return among us. The God who protects us, the God of Freemen, bids us to stretch out towards them our conquering arms. But as for those who are blinded so much as to believe themselves the essence of human nature, and assert that they are destined by heaven to be our masters and our tyrants, let them never come near the land of St. Domingo. We have sworn not to listen to all those who would dare to speak to us of slavery. They must not forget the object for which they have not ceased fighting since 1780. But now a-days the Aurora of peace hails us, with the glimpse of a less stormy time; now that the calm of victory has succeeded to the trouble of a dreadful war, everything in St. Domingo ought to assume a new face, and its government henceforward be that of justice.
Source: Marcus Rainsford, An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti: