Toussaint Louverture

  Louverture’s political ambivalence, which had so infuriated his contemporaries, continued to contribute to this posthumous revival after the Civil War. Speaking to a white audience in 1893, Frederick Douglass noted Louverture’s “humane” treatment of French planters; later that day, to an appreciative black audience, he instead emphasized the “Negro manhood” of Haitian warriors like Louverture. To one group he was a black Washington who had built a functioning state; to the other he was a black Spartacus who had destroyed an unfair system. To W. E. B. Dubois, the “great Negro” had also been directly responsible for several defining moments in US history, starting with the Louisiana Purchase: because the Leclerc expedition was bogged down in Saint-Domingue, Napoléon failed to reoccupy Louisiana and eventually sold it.18

  Louverture’s international acclaim contrasted sharply with his initial unpopularity in his homeland. “We have all heard or read something of Toussaint Louverture, and been taught to think well of him,” wrote a British consul. “I was therefore the more surprised, on my arrival at Port-au-Prince, to hear his memory so depreciated.” Only after the passing of the first generation of statesmen—those who were veterans of the Revolution and rivals or critics of Louverture—did Haitians begin to warm to him. When Faustin Soulouque became president in 1847, he immediately commissioned a statue to honor the “Precursor.” The resulting work, carved from rock and standing eight feet tall, was placed on the grounds of Louverture’s favorite plantation, in Ennery. It was the first of many commemorative works over the following decades.19

  In the twentieth century, as empires broke apart and many colonies across the world declared independence, Louverture was roundly seen as a precursor not only of Haitian independence but of the anticolonial movement more broadly, to the point where one-sided hagiography became the norm both within and outside of Haiti. A copy of the statue carved under Soulouque now stands on the site of the Haut-du-Cap plantation in Haiti, which is also home to a high school named after Louverture. A bust of Louverture has been placed in Bordeaux, where his son Isaac is buried; another one is at the slave-trading port of La Rochelle; and a portrait of Louverture adorns the tramway cars of Besançon, the regional capital near the Fort de Joux. A giant statue of Louverture even looms over Allada in Benin: although he never visited, he is viewed there as a national hero because his parents came from the area. Children’s books, banknotes, plays, TV biopics: he has become, both figuratively and literally, an icon.

  Few scholars now dare to question some aspects of Louverture’s record for fear of appearing critical of the cause for which he fought, an attitude that is seemingly respectful but also simplistic and even patronizing. Turning him into a one-dimensional hero of emancipation obscures the complexities of the Revolution he had to navigate and the skill he displayed in doing so.

  For the past two hundred years, as Louverture’s memory was parsed, lost, and rediscovered, so was his body. Some accounts claim that he was buried in Saint-Pierre, a hamlet located at the foot of the Fort de Joux; according to the prison director, however, he was interred in the fort’s chapel. If the director was correct, that was where the remains lay until a French officer opened the tomb and removed what he thought to be his skull in 1850. The top half was put on display in the library of nearby Pontarlier; the bottom was placed by the fireplace in his former cell, a conversation piece for tourists. In the 1870s, the fort was modernized and the chapel destroyed; the location of these various remains is unknown today.20

  Over the years, as Louverture’s reputation recovered in Haiti, Haitian presidents made repeated requests for his body—wherever it might be—to be repatriated to his home country. However, Charles de Gaulle replied in the 1960s that Louverture was actually a French general, and that as such he was already buried in his country. Little progress has been made since. In 1983, François Mitterrand had dirt from the Fort de Joux sent to Haiti, so that Louverture could be symbolically reinterred in the National Panthéon of Port-au-Prince. Yet the French government also placed a plaque in Louverture’s honor in France’s own Panthéon in Paris, claiming him as a French hero as well. Louverture’s sons once battled over his inheritance; France and Haiti are now battling over the ownership of his legacy.21

  Nationalism was born during the revolutionary era, and so the concept of the nation was still vague in Louverture’s time. Ultimately, two rival definitions emerged. One relied on fixed criteria, including religion, language, or—in Dessalines’s 1805 constitution—race to emphasize that belonging to a nation was a sociological fact rather than a conscious choice. The other, outlined by the French philosopher Ernest Renan in 1882, described nations as social contracts rooted in a shared past and a willingness to live together: “To have done great things together, to want to do more, such are the essential conditions to form a people. . . . Man is not a slave to his race, or his tongue, or his religion.”22

  When Louverture reflected on his own national identity, a shared heritage and shared ideals mattered far more to him than race or birthplace. When trying to convince black field hands that he was their “brother,” he reminded them that he had been “a slave, just like you,” and that he had been “the first in Cap to fight for liberty.” When the racist planter Vincent de Vaublanc questioned his right to be French on account of his African ancestry, Louverture insisted on the “inviolable attachment to France and its Constitution of black and colored generals, who will never betray their oath to live free and French: they will always prefer to bury themselves under the ruins of their country rather than accept the restoration of slavery.” As Louverture later wrote, “I am French” because “I love liberty, and French people are free. . . . I will know how to defend the honor of a nation of which I am proud to be the adoptive son.” Participating in the epic struggle for emancipation had made him a true son of Saint-Domingue. He had then joined the French nation by a conscious act of will, and he planned to remain a Frenchman as long as France shared his agenda. This conditional patriotism, at once principled and calculated, was the ultimate expression of the pragmatic idealism that defined Louverture’s career. He was, in the end, a citizen of both Haiti and France—and of every other nation that has fought and continues to fight for the liberty of man.23

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I first want to recognize the generous hospitality of the individuals who hosted me while I was conducting research for this book, particularly Nathalie and Emmanuel Blanc, Michelle Berny and Marcel Blanc, Ronald and Elizabeth Cook, Coralie Dedieu, Marie-Thérèse Dessay, Jody Garber, Jacques and Marie-Madeleine Girard, Isabelle and Gildvin Hiélard, Sophie and Guillaume Larnicol, and Nicolas Vercken.

  I would also like to thank the many individuals who read and critiqued various segments and drafts of the manuscript, notably my agent Paul Lucas and my editor Dan Gerstle. The participants of a workshop held at the Hutchins Center in November 2014, particularly Kerry Chance, Steven Nelson, and Gregg Hecimovich, helped me refine the Introduction and Chapter 6. Jean-Louis Donnadieu shared some of his research findings with me, especially for Chapter 5, for which I am very grateful.

  Research for this book was financed in part by McNeese State University research grants that were made possible through the generosity of David Elks, Juliet Hartdner, Violet Howell, Evelyn Shaddow Murray, the Shearman family, Joe Gray Taylor, and Delores and Tom Tuminello; many thanks to them. I finished writing this book in the fall of 2014 as a Sheila Biddle Ford Fellow at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center. I would like to commend the center’s staff members for their kind support, starting with Henry Louis Gates Jr., to whom much praise is due for creating such a wonderful research center.

  NOTES

  ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE NOTES

  Note: Translations from Spanish, French, and Kreyòl in this book are mine. Emphases are in the original documents.

  ADD:

  Archives Départementales du Doubs, Besançon

  ADGir:

  Archives Départementales de la Gironde, Bordeauxr />
  ADLA:

  Archives Départementales de la Loire-Atlantique, Nantes

  AGI:

  Archivo General de Indias, Seville

  AGS:

  Archivo General de Simancas, Valladolid

  AHN:

  Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid

  AN:

  Archives Nationales, Paris

  ANOM:

  Archives Nationales d’Outre-Mer, Aix-en-Provence

  APS:

  American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia

  BA:

  Boston Athenaeum

  BFV-FM:

  Fonds Montbret, Bibliothèque François Villon, Rouen

  BNA:

  British National Archives, Kew

  BNF:

  Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris

  BPL:

  Boston Public Library

  CN:

  Vaillant, Jean-Baptiste, ed. Correspondance de Napoléon Ier, publiée par ordre de l’empereur Napoléon III. 32 vols. Paris: Plon, 1858.

  CUL:

  Cornell University Library, Ithaca, New York

  DHHAN:

  Franco, José Luciano, ed. Documentos para la historia de Haití en el Archivo Nacional. Havana: Publicaciones del Archivo Nacional de Cuba, 1954.

  FBL:

  François Bayon de Libertat

  GC-RTSD:

  Garran-Coulon, Jean-Philippe. Rapport sur les troubles de Saint-Domingue. 4 vols. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, Ventôse an V [Feb.–March 1797].

  HNOC:

  Historic New Orleans Collection, New Orleans

  HSP:

  Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

  HU-HL:

  Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

  HU-KFC:

  Kurt Fisher Collection, Moorland-Springarn Research Center, Howard University, Washington, DC

  IL-NH:

  Louverture, Isaac. “Notes historiques sur Toussaint Louverture, manuscrit d’Isaac Louverture, notes intéressantes sur Banica, etc.” (c. 1819). NAF 12409, BNF.

  IL-OTL:

  Louverture, Isaac. “Origine de Toussaint-Louverture racontée par Isaac Louverture” (c. Feb. 15, 1819). NAF 6864, BNF.

  JCB:

  John Carter Brown Library, Providence, Rhode Island

  JLD-PHD:

  Donnadieu, Jean-Louis. Entre Gascogne et Saint-Domingue: Le comte Louis-Pantaléon de Noé, grand propriétaire créole et aristocrate gascon, 1728–1816. PhD dissertation, Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour, 2006.

  LC-MD:

  Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC

  LCP:

  Library Company, Philadelphia

  MHS:

  Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston

  MSM-DPF:

  Moreau de Saint-Méry, M. L. E. Description . . . de la partie française de l’isle Saint-Domingue. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Moreau, 1797–1798.

  MSM-LC:

  Moreau de Saint-Méry, M. L. E. Loix et constitutions des colonies françoises de l’Amérique sous le vent. 6 vols. Paris: Moutard, 1784–1790.

  NARA-CP:

  National Archives and Records Administration II, College Park

  NARA-DC:

  National Archives and Records Administration I, Washington, DC

  NLS-CM:

  Crawford Muniments, Acc. 9769, Personal Papers, 23/10/1176–1188, National Library of Scotland

  NYPL-SC:

  Schomburg Center, New York Public Library

  PB:

  Pantaléon de Bréda Jr.

  PG-MGTL:

  Girard, Philippe, ed. The Memoir of General Toussaint Louverture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.

  PMD-PH:

  Duboys, Pélage-Marie. Précis historique des Annales de la Révolution à Saint Domingue. 2 vols. NAF 14878, 14879 (MF 5389, 5384), BNF.

  SD:

  Saint-Domingue

  SHD-DAT:

  Service Historique de la Défense (Département de l’Armée de Terre), Vincennes

  SHD-DM:

  Service Historique de la Défense (Département de la Marine), Vincennes

  TL:

  Toussaint Louverture

  UF-RP:

  Rochambeau Papers, University of Florida, Gainesville

  UM-CL:

  Clements Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

  UPR-NC:

  Nemours Collection, University of Puerto Rico–Río Piedras, San Juan

  VR-PR:

  Vente Rochambeau, Philippe Rouillac auction house

  INTRODUCTION

  1. “Every body” from David Geggus, “Saint-Domingue and the Rise of Toussaint Louverture,” Huggins lecture, Harvard University, February 23–25, 2016. Toussaint Louverture (TL hereafter) was known as “Toussaint” or “Toussaint Bréda” until he coined a last name c. 1793, but I will consistently refer to him as “Toussaint Louverture” or “Louverture” because he associated his first name with slavery. Napoléon Bonaparte was known as “Général Bonaparte” until his 1804 coronation, but I will consistently refer to him as “Napoléon” because he associated his first name with imperial status.

  2. “Jai éte Esclave” from PG-MGTL, 148.

  3. “Je suis noir” from Philippe-Albert de Lattre, Campagne des Français à SD et réfutation des reproches faits au Capitaine-Général Rochambeau (Paris: Locard, 1805), 46. “Parce que je sui noire” from PG-MGTL, 140. “Ce nègre” from Barry O’Meara, Napoléon en exil: Relation contenant les opinions et les réflexions de Napoléon sur les événements les plus importants de sa vie, durant trois ans de sa captivité (Paris: Garnier, 1897), 2:276.

  CHAPTER 1: ARISTOCRAT, C. 1740

  1. “Roi puissant en Afrique” from IL-OTL. For other accounts by Isaac, see NAF 6864, BNF; NAF 12409, BNF; 6APC/1, ANOM. For family traditions passed through TL’s stepson Placide, see [Jérôme Fontan], “Notes biographiques sur la famille de TL” (c. 1927), TLF-3B, UPR-NC. For family traditions passed through his niece Louise Chancy, see Alain Turnier, Quand la nation demande des comptes (Port-au-Prince: Le Natal, 1989), 31.

  2. “The greatest trading place” from Basil Davidson, West Africa Before the Colonial Era: A History to 1850 (New York: Longman, 1998), 200. The following account of Allada is based on Robin Law, The Kingdom of Allada (Leiden: Research School CNWS, 1997).

  3. “Fille d’Affiba” from Turnier, Quand la nation, 31. On the royal lineages of Benin, see Jean-Louis Donnadieu, Un grand seigneur et ses esclaves: Le comte de Noé entre Antilles et Gascogne, 1728–1816 (Toulouse: Presses Universitaires du Mirail, 2009), 96, 310. Gaou Guinou’s last name was probably a deformation of the word “Deguenon” (“old man” in the Fon language) or “de Guinée” (“from Africa” in Kreyòl). Hippolyte and Catherine’s names were given to them in SD; their original African names are not known to us.

  4. The following account of the slave trade from Allada is based on David Geggus, “The French Slave Trade: An Overview,” William and Mary Quarterly 58, no. 1 (Jan. 2001): 119–138; Robin Law, Ouidah: The Social History of a West African Slaving “Port,” 1727–1892 (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2004). Thanks to both authors for providing clarifications by email.

  5. “Fait prisonnier” from IL-OTL. On Hippolyte’s family being deported with him, see Turnier, Quand la nation, 31.

  6. On the Arab trader, see Jean Hoefer, ed., Nouvelle biographie générale depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu’à nos jours (Paris: Firmin Didot Frères, 1860), 32:38. The 1740 date is an estimate based on King Agaja’s death (1740) and TL’s approximate birth (c. 1743).

  7. On the Hermione, see Jean Mettas and Serge Daget, Répertoire des Expéditions négrières françaises au XVIIIe siècle (Paris: Société Française d’Histoire d’Outre-Mer, 1978), 1:218 (other good candidates include the Jeune Flore, 1:222, and the Reine des Anges, 1:248). On buying from Le Havre, see FBL to PB (Feb. 3, 1785), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN.

  8. On slave revolts, see Franklin Midy, ed., Mémoi
re de révolution d’esclaves à SD (Montréal: Centre International de Documentation et d’Information Haïtienne, Caribéenne et Afro-canadienne, 2006), 48. On TL’s fear of sea travel, see Hugh Cathcart to Thomas Maitland (Nov. 26, 1799), WO 1/74, BNA.

  9. On the slave population, see the 1790 US census; Charles Frostin, Les révoltes blanches à SD aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Haïti avant 1789) (Paris: L’Ecole, 1975), 28; see also www.slavevoyages.org.

  10. On baptizing slaves, see Pierre de Charlevoix, Histoire de l’isle Espagnole ou de SD (Paris, 1730–1731), 2:504. “Cher” from FBL to PB (Feb. 4, 1784), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN. “Laborieux” from François Tussac, Cri des colons contre un ouvrage de M. l’évêque et sénateur Grégoire, ayant pour titre de la littérature des nègres (Paris: Delaunay, 1810), 65. “Les plus propres à la sucrerie” from PB to FBL (July 30, 1784), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN. “Intelligens” from MSM-DPF, 1:29.

  11. “Spectacle déchirant” from MSM-DPF, 1:415.

  12. “Chagrin mortel” from Thomas Gragnon-Lacoste, TL (Paris: Durand, 1877), 7. Strangely, an African-born Marie-Catherine Affiba died on May 14, 1819, in Port-au-Prince; see Jacques de Cauna, “Les registres d’état civil anciens des Archives Nationales d’Haïti,” Revue de la Société Haïtienne d’Histoire et de Géographie 162 (1989): 1–34. “Arracher le fils à sa mère” from TL, Réfutations de quelques assertions d’un discours . . . par Viénot-Vaublanc (Cap: Roux, [Oct. 29], 1797), 17. On Geneviève and Augustin Affiba, see Pierre Bardin, “Langlois de Chancy-TL,” Généalogie et Histoire de la Caraïbe 92 (Apr. 1997): 1944.