bo A Binge al 46 Novenwuxvecestxn ( : 2 oussaint-Louverture The ral ner Ae ou Haiti 200 years ago. JOUSSAINT-LOUVERTURE HAD BEEN A GENERAL | for two years when he experienced a vision. On a hill in Haiti in 1793, a black Madonna appeared before him on a cloud, scattering roses, There was the sound of trumpets and then the voice of the Madonna saying, "You are the Spartacus of the Negroes. ... You shall revenge the evil that has been done unto the people of your race. The man who led the fist successful slave revolt and created the first Haitian Constitution was, for most of his ie a slave. Toussaint was the eldest son of G -Guinow, a slave who was said to be the descendant of a West African king, Converted to Catholicism by the Jesuits, he instilled a lifelong devotion to the Church in his son. They lived on the sugar plantation of Count de Bréda, a humane man, and Toussaint was allowed to receive a little education— an acquaintance with French, a smattering of Latin and geometry. Asa boy, he indulged his love of reading while tending the herd. He read Caesar's Commentaries, Epicetus, Herodotus, Des Claison’s History of Alexander and Caesar, Guishard’s Military Memoirs ofthe Groeks and Romans, He also read Abbot Raynal, who wrote with horror about the practic of slavery and predicted the coming ofa savior among the slaves: “He will appear, doubt it not; he will come forth, and raise the sacred standard of liberty.” Toussaint thought himself to be that savior Between 1791 and 18(2 in Haiti, he defeated the powerful European forces of Spain, England, and France. As governor general, he united the island. Originally named Francois Domingue Toussaint, he took on the name Vonverture—the ‘opening announcing to his people that he would open the Toon Tel esdoor toa better future. “Iwas born a slave,” he wrote, “but received from nature the soul of a free man.” A biography and autobiography ofthis remarkable man ‘was published by John Relly Beard in 1853, and can be found in its entirety on the website “North American Slave Narratives, Beginnings to 1920,” an electronic text project created by the Academic Affairs Library atthe University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with support from the NEH, According to project director Patricia Dominguez, shave narratives some of which are out of print and in fragile ‘condition—have a high circulation, “One of the things that all ‘of us have been concerned about is that alot of materials are being digitized, but by commercial firms,” says Dominguez. “They're availabe to people who ate tich enough to pay for them but that often leaves out inner city and rural schools” With the help of William Andrews, an English professor at Chapel Hill who had already begun a bibliography of North American slave narratives, the goal of the project became to create a complete library of all slave nareat Todate, there: Originally written to support the anté-slavery cause, the narratives represent “the only perspective on slavery from, the point of view of the slave,” according to Domingu verything elses from the plantation owners’ perspective, the white majority's perspective.” The history of Haiti has been a history of slaves. When Columbus landed on the island he named Hispaniola it was more than two hundred on the BY CAROLINE KIM populated by Arawak Indians. “They are lovable, tractable, peaceful, gentle, decorous,” wrote Columbus. “They bear hho arms, and are very cowardly, so thata thousand would not face three; and so they are fit to be ordered about and made to work” ‘Many Indians perished in the search for gold under brutal Spanish hands. The rest were killed by smallpox. A Spanish census in 1508 counted 60,000 Indians; in only a hundred and fifty. Sugar cultivation began on the island in the sixteenth, century. A new slave force was required. African slaves, noirs, arrived on Hispaniola as early as 1500, “Besides the fact that a black can do more work than six Indians,” wrote Pere Charlevoix, an eightoenth-century French chronicler, “he accustoms himself to slavery, for which he seems to have been created; he is uncomplaining, contents himself with litte to eat, and, even on bad food, slays strong and robust. He has a bit of natural pride, but, in order to tame him, a few lashes will suffice to remind him that he asa Master.” In 1659, although Spain retained ownership of the eastern two-thirds of Hispaniola under the name Santo Domingo, the French assumed governance of the western third and called it Saint-Domingue. By the tim tions Saint-Domingue had become the “Jewel of the “Antilles” for France, making Frenchman wealthy through the cultivation of sugar, coffee, indigo, and catton, there were the slave instrrec= owasaies 47By the late eighteenth century, African slaves outnum bered whites and i 0s, oF mulatts, by a large majority The census of 1791 shows the population of black slaves at 700,000 as opposed to 40,000 whites and 28,00 n Given the numbers, white planters were concemed about a possible uprising. One planter, the Marquis said of the danger 1 Rouvray, This colony of slaves is like a city under the imminence of attack: we are treading on loaded barrels npowder.” History proved him right, Fight years later, Saint-Domingue would ignite The quarrel was initially between the white planters and the mulitres, Under the Code Noir established by Louis XIV to regulatize slavery, masters could free individual slaves. Once liberated, the freedman—affranchi—enjoyed “the same rights, privileges, and immunities of persons born a free.” The class who most benefited was that of the mulitres, often the offspring of French white planters and African slaves. Many were as rich as the whites. They owned land and slaves; they sent their children to be educated in France As the number of affranchis rose, they were kept from enjoying their freedom, Whites and affranchis could not marry. They were barred from carrying arms, not allowed at the same table as whites, prevented from holding public office, and exeluded from th medicine, pharmacy, teaching, and the priesthood. toea prolessions of lave Fueled by the revolutionary events in France, including, the fall of the Bastille in 1789, a group of mulitres went t In October of 1789, the Assembly passed the "Declaration of the Rights of Paris to demand their Natior Man and of the Citizen,” which inits first article proclaimed, All men are born and live free and equal in their rights. Two weeks later, they accepted a petition of rights for "free Gitizens of color.” There was as yet no mention of freedom hen the mulitres returned to Saint-Domingue, the whites refused the rights acknowledged to them in France two of the mulatre leaders, ih the mulitres did not want to inflame the slaves—for they and promptly tortured and killed severing their heads and putting them on stakes. Thi feared the noirsas much as the white planters did and had 48 NoveameRDECENUER The slaves were only waiting to strike. On the night of August 2, forth. Te had enslaved them, the slav the next. “Those rich houses, those superb factories, were in ruins” writes Beard. "Conflagrati mountains, covered with smoke 1, the strugele for Haitian independence burst houses and fields and killing the masters who on raged everywhere. The nd burning fragments, bbome upwards by the wind, looked like volcanoes, Toussaint did not join the fighting immediately. Fa by the overseer, Bayou de Libertas, he had lived a compara tively easy, tranquil life. Unlike most slaves, he was allowed by Bayou to choose his own wife their own land to cultivate. About this peaceful time writes, We went tol nd the two were giver or in the fields, my wite and in hand, Scarcely were we conscious of the fatigues ofthe day. Heaven always blessed our toil. Not only ‘we swam in abundance, but we had the pleasure of giving, food to blacks who needed it Toussaint repaid his averseer's kindness by helping him to escape, his family and valuable them to the coast from which they left for America, Only then diel Toussaint join his fellow noirs The blacks made a ragtag army, According to Beard, “The infantry were all but naked, and destitute of experience ntact. He personally their weapons were sticks pointed with iron, broken or blunted swords, pieces of iron hoop, and some wretched: gunsand piste Toussaint was expert at using guerila tactics and avoiding direct attacks, He trained squads of ten to twelve men tocreep close tothe ground. Preceding them were groups of women and children, dancing and singing loudly, who would sud ddenly grow silent and disappear into the undergrowth. Then Toussaint’s men would begin attacking from all sides When the French retaliated against their former slaves, Toussaintjoin J the Spanish, whose goal was to rule the entire island. But fearing that the Spanish we bo decreed the liberation of slaves on Saint-Domingue in 1793, slavery, he switched back to the French, who He always considered himselfa French citizen, and when the British suggested he become King of Hi protection, he refused. Instead, in 1801 he proclaimed hin i-vie, oF governor general aint’ rule can only be d much to revitalize his country. Saint-Domingue was ed a dictatorship, he devastated by years of fighting, The treastry was bankrupt, the fi tunderstood that an aggricultu Js were fallow, cities had to be rebuilt. Toussaint He instituted the system of fermage, in which the state took abandoned plantations and leased them out. A quarter of the revenue was paid to the workers, who were nso fed, housed, and clothed. The tenant took a fixed sh of the profits and the government the rest 1 those he considered shirkers, he could be fierce smember,” he said, “there is but one Toussaint-Louverture int-Domingue, and at his name, all must tremble There was one man who refused to tremble: Napoleon, Bonaparte, who had been busy consolidating his power About Toussaint, he is reported to have said, "He isa revolted slave whom we must punish; the honor of France is outraged,Napoleon saw Saint-Domingue as a possible stepping stone to further the borders of France into the New World, From the island, he could fight the British in Jamaica and then on to America where France had a foothold in the Louisiana Territory. But to the British, he said, “My decision to destroy the authority ofthe blacks in Haiti is not so much based on considerations of commerce and money, as on the need to block forever the march ofthe blacks in the world, For the task of reasserting French control over Haiti Napoleon gave the command to his brother-in-law, General Victoire-Emmanuel Leclerc Chavle earlier been sent to Hai vain to stop Napoleon, “At the head of so many resources Humbert-Marie de Vincent, colonel who had as. peace commissioner, tried in isa man the most active and indefatigable that can possibly be imagined,” he wrote to the First Consul. "No man of the present day has acquired over an ignorant mass the boundless power obtained by General Toussaint over his brethren in Saint Domingo; he is the absolute master of the island, For his trouble, Vincent was banished to the island of Elba, where years later he was on hand to greet Napoleon, In early December 1801, Leclerc, his wife Pauline—who ‘was Napoleon's sister—and 35,040 French, Spanish, and Dutch troops sailed from Brest, Rochefort, Lorient, Toulon, and Cadiz. As Toussaint stood on the heights of Samana Bay watching the fleet arrive, he lost his usual nerve, “Friends, he said, “we are doomed. All France has come to Saint-Domingue For the next several months, heavy fighting devastated Haiti, Thoug his generals had been ordered to burn entire cities rather little is known about Toussaint’s movements, than surrender them to the French Toussaint knew that he could France's superior power foreve ‘ot hold out against but he hoped to survive ightattack Napoleon's troops more effectively than he could ‘until the spring, when yellow fever m However, before that happened, Leclere successfully won over Toussaint’s generals. Toussaint discovered their betrayal and had no choice but to give up. He was taken to the frig te La Creole, and from there to the ship fiéros. His wife, sons, and a niece were also arrested and taken aboatd the ship, although they were not allowed to see him. “Now they have felled the trunk of the Negroes’ tree of liberty,” he said as he looked upon Haiti for the ‘However, new shoots will sprout bec roots are deep and many Toussaint landed in Brest on July 12, 1802. He was taken to the ninth-century Fort de Joux where he was was confined to a dungeon cell twelve feet by twenty feet ort rock, placed as it was on top ofa fifteen-hundred-foot The imposing fort appeared to have been built on sheer mountain; behind it towered peaks covered with snow nine months out of the year. While in prison, he wrote a series of letters to Napoleon in which he begged for a fair trial. None was answered, livless than a year, physically ill, heart-broken, and depressed at being separated from his family, the liberator of Haiti died, Toussaint was prescient about his fellow counteymen’s love for liberty. Assuming correctly that Leclere planned to reinstate slavery in Haiti, Toussaint’s former generals banded together and tured against the Frenchman. At the same time, the disease Toussaint had been waiting for blazed through the French forces, Yellow fever killed more men than had died during the fighting ‘On All Saint's Day, 1803, Leclere died of the disease hin sell. In his last letter to Napoleon, he wrote, “Here is my opinion. You will have to exterminate all the blacks in the mountains, women as well as men, except for children under twelve, Wipe out half the population of the lowlands, and do not leave in the colony a single black who has worn Send 12,000 replacements immediately, and 10 million francs in cash, or Saint-Domingue is lost forever: an epaulet The French held on for another year but their troops ha been devastated. Finally, on December 4, 1803, the last of the French troops departed and on January 1, 1804, Toussaint’s former generals proclaimed the Free Black Republic ot Haiti Napoleon, banished to St. Helena a decade later, regretted having invaded Haiti, To his secretary, Emanuel Las Cases, he said, "My greatest mistake was to try to subdue Haiti by force farms. I should have let Toussaint-Louverture rule it” © ‘Grvofine Kim is a.wniterin'Son Francisco The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hil has received 000 in NEH support for the website “North American Slave thane edu/nelinchstn Narratives, Beginnings to 1920,” docs usanmes 49Copyright of Humanities is the property of Superintendent of Documents and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.