Toussaint Louverture

  15. On Baptiste’s possible professions, see [Valsemey?], “Esclaves existant” (Dec. 31, 1785), 261 MIOM, ANOM. “Il savait le français” from IL-OTL. For literacy rates, see Rogers, Les libres de couleur, 516.

  16. On Capuchin mores, see Leclerc, “Précis du mémoire” (Oct. 20, 1775), F5A 25/2, ANOM; “Au Roy” (c. 1776), C9B/27, ANOM. On Capuchin services, see Sue Peabody, “‘A Dangerous Zeal’: Catholic Missions to Slaves in the French Antilles, 1635–1800,” French Historical Studies 25, no. 1 (Winter 2002): 85. “Vieux Capucin” from Beaubrun Ardouin, Etudes sur l’histoire d’Haïti, suivies de la vie du général J-M Borgella (Paris: Dezobry et Magdeleine, 1853–1860), 2:419.

  17. “Les dimanches” from Moniteur Universel (Jan. 9, 1799). On slaves owned by the Catholic Church, see “Inventaire” (June 22–Aug. 15, 1773), F5A 23, ANOM.

  18. For the first register, see “Etat général” (Apr. 4, 1785), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN. The first register was first transcribed in Gabriel Debien, “Sur la sucrerie Bréda du Haut-du-Cap, 1785,” Revue de la Faculté d’Ethnologie, no. 10 (1965): 18–27. For the second register, see [Valsemey?], “Esclaves existant” (Dec. 31, 1785), 261 MIOM, ANOM. The second register was first transcribed in Jean-Louis Donnadieu and Philippe Girard, “Nouveaux documents sur la vie de TL,” Bulletin de la Société d’Histoire de la Guadeloupe 166–167 (Sept. 2013–Apr. 2014): 117–139.

  19. The 1785 roster was drafted after TL’s nominal manumission; he may have been eager to show off his gratitude, because freedmen who failed to do so could be re-enslaved by law.

  20. On TL’s family network, see Girard and Donnadieu, “Toussaint Before Louverture,” 41–78.

  21. “Les seuls en lesquels” from TL to Christophe (May 13, 1800), AT-6, UPR-NC.

  22. “Band of brothers” from Joseph J. Ellis, Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation (New York: Knopf, 2000), 164.

  CHAPTER 6: FREEDMAN, C. 1772–1779

  1. The Apr. 7, 1776, baptism was first mentioned in Marie-Antoinette Menier, Gabriel Debien, and Jean Fouchard, “TL avant 1789: Légendes et réalités,” Conjonction 134 (June–July 1977): 65–80. I could not locate the baptismal record in 1DPPC2319, ANOM, as of November 2014 (thanks to Jacques Dion and Jean-Louis Donnadieu for helping me look for the missing record). For evidence that the “Toussaint” in the act was indeed TL (which Menier et al. could not confirm), see [Baptismal record] (Jan. 19, 1784), 1DPPC2324, ANOM; [Valsemey?], “Esclaves existant” (Dec. 31, 1785), 261 MIOM, ANOM. There may have been earlier mentions of TL as a freedman, but French baptismal and notarial records only go back to 1776.

  2. On the odds of being freed, see David Barry Gaspar and Darlene Clark Hine, eds., More Than Chattel: Black Women and Slavery in the Americas (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996), 268. On Geneviève, see Pierre Bardin, “Langlois de Chancy–TL,” Généalogie et Histoire de la Caraïbe 92 (Apr. 1997): 1944. Eleven percent figure calculated from Le Brasseur to de Castries (July 26, 1781), c9a/151, ANOM.

  3. “Le fardeau pesant” from TL to Directory (July 18, 1797), d. B4/5915, *F7/7321, AN. For rumors about TL’s manumission, see François de Kerversau, “Rapport sur la partie française de SD” (March 22, 1801), Box 2/66, UF-RP.

  4. “Une punition rigoureuse” from Alfred de Lacaze [probably a relative of Placide Louverture], “Louverture,” in Dr. Hoefer, ed., Nouvelle biographie générale depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu’à nos jours (Paris: Firmin Didot Frères, 1860), 32:38. On the maroon Toussaint, see Affiches américaines (Sept. 5, 1772). On FBL’s coachmen, see FBL to PB (Nov. 3, 1776), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN.

  5. “Mon ancien patron” from TL to Directory (July 18, 1797), d. B4/5915, *F7/7321, AN.

  6. For the manumission process, see MSM-LC, 2:398; 3:453; 5:190, 807; 6:499. On the tax, see MSM-LC, 5:577. On PB being unaware of TL’s manumission, see his letters in d. 12, 18AP3, AN (which never mention TL); and the Dec. 31, 1785, plantation register sent to PB, which erroneously described TL as a slave. If TL’s manumission deed is ever to be found, possible locations include the Bréda letters in 18AP/3, AN; the greffe (clerk of court) records in 7DPPC, ANOM; the governors’ letters in C9, ANOM; the papers of Bréda’s Parisian notary in ET/LXXXVI, AN; and the manumission records in NOT SDOM REP 116, ANOM.

  7. For the census data, see Charles Frostin, Les révoltes blanches à SD aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Haïti avant 1789) (Paris: L’Ecole, 1975), 28.

  8. For the one-third claim, see Julien Raimond’s May 13, 1791, speech in Anon., Réimpression de l’Ancien Moniteur (Paris: René, 1861), 8:399. For the 10 percent estimate, see John D. Garrigus, Before Haiti: Race and Citizenship in French SD (New York: Palgrave, 2006), 255.

  9. On Jean-Baptiste, see Abbé Delaporte, [Marriage certificate] (Sept. 3, 1777), 1DPPC2319, ANOM.

  10. On Jean-Baptiste, see Delribal to PB (Aug. 18, 1773), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN.

  11. On the manumission tax for women of childbearing age (2,000 livres), see MSM-LC, 5:577.

  12. “Afin que les enfants” (a reference to either Suzanne or Cécile) from Jean-Louis Clavier, “TL d’après le ‘Mémoire abrégé . . . ,’” Revue Française d’Histoire d’Outre-Mer 62, no. 228 (1975): 467. For the first mention of Cécile as a freed-woman, see “Testament” (Nov. 14, 1778), NOT *SDOM 524, ANOM. On trying to buy Tony’s freedom, see FBL to PB (Nov. 3, 1776), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN. On a slave possibly owned by Cécile, see Affiches américaines (Sept. 14, 1779).

  13. On Marie-Marthe’s first husband, see “Bail” (Aug. 17, 1779), NOT *SDOM 525, ANOM. On Toussaint Jr. being free in 1785 and Gabriel in 1787, see [Burial record] (Nov. 17, 1785), 1DPPC2324, ANOM; [Marriage record] (Oct. 4, 1787), 1DPPC2326, ANOM.

  14. For the 1785 registers, see chap. 8. On Marie-Rose (who may have been freed by the white father of her older daughter), see [Baptismal record] (Jan. 19, 1784), 1DPPC2324, ANOM. On Pélagie, see chap. 10.

  15. On TL’s grandchild, see “Liberté” (Jan. 11, 1783), NOT *SDOM 542, ANOM.

  16. On the lot bought by TL, see “Vente d’emplacement” (Aug. 18, 1779), NOT *SDOM 525, ANOM.

  17. On FBL’s stops, see “Extrait des minutes” (June 26, 1779), COL E21, ANOM. On TL serving food, see Adolphe Cabon, Notes sur l’histoire religieuse d’Haïti de la révolution au concordat (1789–1860) (Port-au-Prince: Petit séminaire collège saint-Martial, 1933), 44. Biassou worked on La Charité’s plantation in Petite Anse; see “Notes de Mr. Leclerc” (c. 1803), CC9A/5, ANOM.

  18. The following description of Cap is based on “Recensement” (June 27, 1776) and “Table du cartulaire” (Nov. 11, 1787), *g/1/495, DPPC, ANOM; R. Phelipeaux, “Plan de la ville du Cap Français” (1785), Caribbean Map Collection, University of Florida, Gainesville; MSM-DPF, 1:293–483.

  19. On Christophe, see Alfred de Laujon, Souvenirs de trente années de voyages à SD, dans plusieurs colonies étrangères, et au continent d’Amérique (Paris: Schwartz and Gagnot, 1835), 1:355.

  20. On untamed horses, see IL-NH, 77. On the ban on galloping, see MSM-LC, 4:498.

  21. On the theater of Cap, see MSM-LC, 6:734, 778. “Profession criminelle” from Père Colomban, “Demande . . .” (Dec. 27, 1775), F5A 25/3, ANOM. On Othello, see PG-MGTL, 137.

  22. On the 1777 execution, see MSM-DPF, 1:332. People of color were executed on Clugny Square by the 1770s.

  23. For Bordier’s records, see NOT SDOM 168–203, ANOM.

  24. “Une jetée prise sur la mer” from Laujon, Souvenirs de trente années, 1:353.

  25. On Aaron Sasportas, see “Procuration” (Feb. 14, 1780), NOT *SDOM 1627, DPPC, ANOM; FBL, “Compte-rendu” (Apr. 4, 1785), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN. On Corneille, see TL to Laveaux (Nov. 11, 1795), fr. 12103, BNF; Henry Christophe, The Formation of the New Dynasty of the Kingdom of Hayti (Philadelphia, 1811), Y*49, HSP.

  26. On the Bunels, see Philippe Girard, “Trading Races: Joseph and Marie Bunel. A Diplomat and a Merchant in Revolutionary SD and Philadelphia,” Journal of the Early Republic 30 (Fall 2010): 351–376. Marie Mouton was officially freed in 17
81; see Le Brasseur to de Castries (July 26, 1781), c9a/151, ANOM.

  27. On Olivier, see Affiches américaines (March 21, 1780); MSM-DPF, 1:224.

  28. On Blaise Bréda, 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), 103.

  29. On Provoyeur, see chap. 7.

  30. On Jasmin (aka Aloou Kinson), see Cercle des Philadelphes to Intendant (July 30, 1789), 61J5, ADGir; COL E229, ANOM.

  CHAPTER 7: SLAVE DRIVER, 1779–1781

  1. For the lease (first discovered in 1977), see “Bail” (Aug. 17, 1779), NOT *SDOM 525, ANOM. On Désir’s marriage to Marie-Marthe, see Frère Julien, [Burial record] (Nov. 16, 1784), 1DPPC 2384, ANOM.

  2. On free people of color, see Dominique Rogers, Les libres de couleur dans les capitales de SD: Fortune, mentalités et intégration à la fin de l’Ancien Régime (1776–1789) (PhD diss., Université de Bordeaux III, 1999); Stewart R. King, Blue Coat or Powdered Wig: Free People of Color in Pre-Revolutionary SD (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2001); John D. Garrigus, Before Haiti: Race and Citizenship in French SD (New York: Palgrave, 2006).

  3. On the appearance of racism, see Pierre H. Boulle, Race et esclavage dans la France de l’Ancien Régime (Paris: Perrin, 2007), 63–68. “Persuasion intime” from M. J. La Neuville, Le dernier cri de SD et des colonies (Philadelphia: Bradford, 1800), 15. “L’intérêt et la sûreté” from Michel Hilliard d’Auberteuil, Considérations sur l’état présent de la colonie française de SD (Paris: Grangé, 1776), 2:73.

  4. “Taches” from Huard du Parc to Louis XVI (March 8, 1783), COL E 21, ANOM. On the Chapuizet case, see also MSM-LC, 5:879–882, 895; 6:500.

  5. On TL’s apparent sympathy toward Chapuizet, see PMD-PH, 2:168. For a 1779 naturalization case involving a Jewish family tied to SD, see COL E210, ANOM.

  6. On discriminatory laws, see MSM-LC, 4:412; 5:5, 80, 166, 448, 520, 762, 855; 6:238, 717. “O vous, nos pères!” from Michel Mina, Adresse à l’Assemblée Nationale par les hommes de couleur libres de SD (c. July 1790), 10.

  7. For the manumission of TL’s grandson, see “Liberté” (Jan. 11, 1783), NOT *SDOM 542, ANOM.

  8. “Chasse” from “Nous certifions” (Apr. 12, 1780), E57, ANOM.

  9. For a lawsuit with Françoise Bonnefoy, see FBL to PB (June 9 and Oct. 21, 1777), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN. With François Bessière, 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), 179. With Zabeth Port-de-Paix, see PB to FBL (Apr. 20, 1782), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN. With Guillaume Provoyeur, see FBL to Polastron (Feb. 21, 1787), d. 2, 73J1, ADGir. With the Aulnays, see FBL to PB (July 7, 1783), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN. On TL submitting to white harassment, see Thomas Madiou, Histoire d’Haïti (Port-au-Prince: Courtois, 1847), 2:125.

  10. “Self-evident” from the US Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776). On rumors of abolition, see d’Ennery and de Vaivres to de Sartine (June 25, 1776), C9A/144, ANOM. The following account of the Bréda plantation in 1776–1783 is drawn from Affiches américaines and d. 12, 18AP/3, AN.

  11. “Il serait malheureux” from FBL to PB (Feb. 8, 1777), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN. “Tout le monde croit” from FBL to PB (Jan. 2, 1778), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN.

  12. On the militia controversy, see MSM-LC, vols. 4 and 5; Charles Frostin, Les révoltes blanches à SD aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Haïti avant 1789) (Paris: L’Ecole, 1975), 297–341. On d’Estaing’s losses, see “Liste générale des malades . . .” (Nov. 24, 1779), HOP86, DPPC, ANOM. On creating a volunteer unit, see MSM-LC, 5:860–869.

  13. On the motives for enrolling among free men of color, see Laurent de Rouvray, “Extrait d’un mémoire sur la création d’un corps de gens de couleur” (1779), DFC/XXXIII/Mémoires/3/doc. 10, ANOM.

  14. On Rigaud in Savannah, see André Rigaud to Napoléon Bonaparte (July 13, 1802), B7/5, SHD-DAT. On Dessalines, see Desaline [sic], “Etat des services” (c. 1796), COL E129, ANOM. For other famous Haitians allegedly in Savannah, see King, Blue Coat or Powdered Wig, xv.

  15. For the lease, see “Bail” (Aug. 17, 1779), NOT *SDOM 525, ANOM.

  16. On the land sale, see “Vente d’emplacement” (Aug. 18, 1779), NOT *SDOM 525, ANOM.

  17. On Grande-Rivière, see MSM-DPF, 1:220–230.

  18. Dessalines’s ties to TL were independently revealed in Jacques de Cauna, “Dessalines esclave de Toussaint?” Outre-Mers: Revue d’Histoire 374–375 (June 2012): 319–322, and Philippe Girard, “Jean-Jacques Dessalines and the Atlantic System: A Reappraisal,” William and Mary Quarterly 69, no. 3 (July 2012): 555.

  19. On the Savannah expedition, see Affiches américaines (Nov. 16, 1779); John Garrigus, “Catalyst or Catastrophe? SD’s Free Men of Color and the Savannah Expedition, 1779–1782,” Review / Revista Interamericana 22 (1992): 109–125.

  20. On the hurricane, see Reynaud and Le Brasseur to de Sartine (Dec. 1, 1780), c9a/148, ANOM. “Le pays est dévasté” from FBL to PB (March 10, 1781), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN.

  21. On selling part of the lot, see “Vente de terrain” (May 25, 1781), NOT *SDOM 178, ANOM. Désir probably returned with the de Grasse fleet; see Le Brasseur to de Castries (July 26, 1781), c9a/151, ANOM. On the end of the lease and the death of two slaves (Marie-Marthe and François), see “Résiliation de bail” (July 31, 1781), NOT *SDOM 178, ANOM.

  22. On the 648,000 francs claim, see PG-MGTL, 4. On TL allegedly traveling to France and being a Freemason, see Madison Smartt Bell, TL: A Biography (New York: Pantheon Books, 2007), 17, 60, 63. “Hob-nobbed” from David Geggus, “TL,” New West Indian Guide 84, nos. 1–2 (2010): 157. Evidence for the trip to France are two later accounts by Camille Fleuriot de Langle and the Marquis de la Jaille; see Auguste Nemours, Histoire de la famille et de la descendance de TL (Port-au-Prince: Imprimerie de l’Etat, 1941), 4; Gabriel Debien and Philip Wright, “Les colons de SD passés à la Jamaïque (1792–1835),” Notes d’Histoire Coloniale 168 (1976): 152–157. Evidence hinting at TL’s possible membership in a Freemason lodge are dots in his signature and a later lodge register mentioning his brother Paul; see “Tableau des F.F. composant la R. L. la Réunion Désirée . . . ,” 1800, Fonds maçonnique 2, BNF.

  23. For the register, see [Valsemey?], “Esclaves existant” (Dec. 31, 1785), 261 MIOM, ANOM. The register was first published in Jean-Louis Donnadieu and Philippe Girard, “Nouveaux documents sur la vie de TL,” Bulletin de la Société d’Histoire de la Guadeloupe 166–167 (Sept. 2013–Apr. 2014): 117–139. TL’s name also appears on an earlier register dated April 1785 but without the details found in the December 1785 register.

  24. On VD, see FBL to PB (July 7, 1783), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN. On Gálvez, see MSM-DPF, 1:342, 366, 539, 592.

  25. On the hospital, see MSM-DPF, 1:596. Most soldiers left in 1782; see FBL to PB (June 18, 1782), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN.

  26. On Provoyeur (aka Mirbalizia), see Dominique Rogers, Les libres de couleur dans les capitales de SD: Fortune, mentalités et intégration à la fin de l’Ancien Régime (1776–1789) (PhD diss., Université de Bordeaux III, 1999), 106, 623. For the first will, see “Testament” (Nov. 14, 1778), NOT *SDOM 524, ANOM (document communicated by Jean-Louis Donnadieu). On buying lots in Haut-du-Cap, see “Vente d’emplacement” (May 28, 1781) and “Vente de terrain” (July 17, 1781), NOT *SDOM 178, ANOM. For the second will, see Pierre-Guillaume Provoyeur, “Testament” (June 23, 1782), NOT *SDOM 180, ANOM.

  27. Cécile was still alive in 1787; see [Marriage record] (Oct. 4, 1787), 1DPPC2326, ANOM.

  28. On Jasmin’s death, see Frère Julien, [Burial record] (Nov. 16, 1784), 1DPPC 2384, ANOM. On Toussaint Jr.’s death, see [Burial record] (Nov. 17, 1785), 1DPPC2324, ANOM. On the possibility that Gabriel Toussaint survived the Revolution, see Isaac Louverture to Chaudordy (Sept. 1, 1821), 6APC/1, ANOM. On Marie-Marthe’s probable return to Haut-du-Cap, see the two Marie-Marthes listed in the Apr. 4 and Dec. 31, 1785, plantation registers, both doi
ng little or no work. On Marie-Marthe’s second marriage, see [Marriage record] (Oct. 4, 1787), 1DPPC2326, ANOM.

  29. On Dessalines’s career, see Desaline [sic], “Etat des services” (c. 1796), COL E129, ANOM. On Janvier Dessalines as a slave owner, as well as Marie-Louise Dessalines (a relative?), see “Vente mulâtresse” (Sept. 30, 1782), and “Vente négritte” (Feb. 24, 1785), NOT *SDOM 1362, ANOM. On ties between Janvier Dessalines and Belley, see [Acte de mariage] (July 10, 1780), 1DPPC 2322, ANOM.

  CHAPTER 8: MULETEER, 1781–1789

  1. “C’est un des plus beaux points de vue” from Jean-Louis Donnadieu, “Un officier français face à la Révolution outre-mer, les infortunes du lieutenant-colonel Jacques d’Ounous à SD, aux Etats-Unis et en Louisiane (1792–1802),” Revue Historique des Armées 265 (Winter 2011): 78.

  2. “Maître moulinier” from [Valsemey?], “Esclaves existant” (Dec. 31, 1785), 261 MIOM, ANOM.

  3. “Arpents de neige” from Charles Lahure, ed., Œuvres complètes de Voltaire (Paris: Hachette, 1860), 15:138.

  4. On the number of plantations, see MSM-DPF, 1:100. On exports, see Barré de Saint-Venant, Des colonies modernes sous la zone torride, et particulièrement de celle de SD (Paris: Brochot, 1802), 102. The following overview of Haut-du-Cap in the 1780s is based on d.12, 18AP3, AN; JLD-PHD; E691, ADLA; 261 MIOM, ANOM.

  5. For salary levels, see Simon Schama, Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution (New York: Knopf, 1989), 306. The colonial livre was worth one-third less than the French livre.

  6. On a steam engine, see Anon., “Projet de souscription . . .” (c. July 1778), EB S137 1770 1, JCB.

  7. On sugar cultivation, see Saint-Venant, Des colonies modernes, 322–418. On singing, see [François Laplace], Histoire des désastres de SD (Paris: Garnery, 1795), 88.

  8. “Trahison” from “Etat général” (Apr. 4, 1785), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN.

  9. On the balloon flight, see MSM-DPF, 1:288. Gallifet had a reputation for being kind to its slaves (see MSM-DPF, 1:277), but the evidence suggests otherwise; see 107 AP/127, AN. On the scientific society (which was in contact with its counterpart in Philadelphia), see Baudry des Lozières, “Discours” (Aug. 22, 1784), 506.7294 C33.1, no. 2, APS.