Toussaint Louverture

  10. “Chaque Habitant est . . . un Manufacturier” from MSM-LC, 4:644. On slaves as blue-collar workers, see Aimé Césaire, TL: La révolution française et le problème colonial (Paris: Présence Africaine, 1981), 37.

  11. “Ami” and “fredaines” from Beaubrun Ardouin, Etudes sur l’histoire d’Haïti, suivies de la vie du général J-M Borgella (Paris: Dezobry et Magdeleine, 1853–1860), 1:227.

  12. “De Libertat” from FBL to PB (Dec. 22, 1772), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN. On falsely claiming noble status, see MSM-LC, 5:184; 6:30, 549.

  13. On FBL’s in-laws, see E362, ANOM.

  14. “Plus nègre que blanc” from FBL to PB (June 9, 1777), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN. “Quel Spectacle” from [Valsemey?], “Mémoire” (c. Dec. 31, 1785), 261 MIOM, ANOM.

  15. On Hippolyte / Jean-Jacques, see FBL to Count of Noé (May 19, May 27, and Aug. 2, 1782), JLD-PHD.

  16. On domestics in Haut-du-Cap, see “Esclaves existant” (Dec. 31, 1785), 261 MIOM, ANOM. On domestics in Gallifet, see “Recensement des nègres . . .” (Jan. 1783), 107AP/127, AN. “Goût de paresse” from [Valsemey?], “Mémoire” (c. Dec. 31, 1785), 261 MIOM, ANOM.

  17. On a union dating back to c. 1778, see Moniteur Universel (Jan. 9, 1799). On Isaac’s birth on Oct. 19, 1784, see “Etat général” (Apr. 4, 1785), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN. “Married” from [Valsemey?], “Esclaves existant” (Dec. 31, 1785), 261 MIOM, ANOM. On Cécile being alive in 1787, see [Marriage record] (Oct. 4, 1787), 1DPPC2326, ANOM. “Mariage à la créole” from Thomas Gragnon-Lacoste, TL (Paris: Durand, 1877), 15. No official marriage between TL and Suzanne Louverture appears in the marriage records of Cap in 1777–1788; see 1DDPC5339, ANOM. Marriages required manumission papers, which could have created a problem if TL lacked them; see MSM-LC, 5:807. Alternatively, perhaps a marriage was celebrated but not recorded due to endemic poor recordkeeping; see Frère Julien to De Castries (Sept. 30, 1785), F5A 25/1, ANOM. Bigamy was frequent in SD; see De Choiseul to [de Sartines?] (May 8, 1777), c9a/145, ANOM.

  18. For a possible mulatto daughter of Suzanne, see Affiches américaines (July 17, 1781). Placide claimed he was TL’s biological son so that he could claim his father’s inheritance; see “Extrait des minutes . . .” (Apr. 15, 1821), TLF-1A3b, UPR-NC. Several authors have mistakenly followed his lead, including Auguste Nemours, Histoire de la famille et de la descendance de TL (Port-au-Prince: Imprimerie de l’Etat, 1941), 10–21. But Placide was a griffe; see “Les enfants de TL” (Oct. 7, 1801), d. 5410, F/7/6266, AN. Placide may have been related to Marie Clere, who served as godmother alongside TL in a Jan. 19, 1784, baptism; see 1DPPC2324, ANOM.

  19. “Avalasses” from FBL to PB (Oct. 21, 1777), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN. On soil erosion on the Morne du Cap, see MSM-DPF, 1:596, 598.

  20. For PB’s will, see “Inventaire” (July 20, 1786), et/LXXXVI/847, AN. “Tout l’ascendant” from FBL to Mr. and Mrs. de Polastron (Feb. 21, 1787), E691, ADLA.

  21. On SD’s production, see R. Lepelletier de Saint-Rémy, SD: Etude et solution nouvelle de la question haïtienne (Paris: Arthus Bertrand, 1846), 60, 66. On production in the British Caribbean (99 million colonial livres in 1788) and the number of workers tied to trade to SD, see Saint-Venant, Des colonies modernes, 102, 154. For re-export numbers, see Marcel Dorigny, ed., The Abolitions of Slavery: From Léger Félicité Sonthonax to Victor Schoelcher, 1793, 1794, 1848 (New York: Berghahn, 2003), 238. On the number of ships, see Paul Butel, “Succès et déclin du commerce colonial français, de la Révolution à la Restauration,” Revue Economique 40, no. 6 (1989): 1079–1082. On the number of sailors, see “Questions sur la population . . .” (c. 1785), DFC/XXXIII/Mémoires/3/202, ANOM.

  22. On Auberteuil, see Michel Hilliard d’Auberteuil, Considérations sur l’état présent de la colonie française de SD (Paris: Grangé, 1776), 1:147, 236–244. On profit rates in the 1780s, see Justin Girod-Chantrans, Voyage d’un Suisse dans différentes colonies d’Amérique (Neuchatel: Société typographique, 1785), 129; Francis Alexander Stanislaus Wimpffen, A Voyage to Saint Domingo in the Years 1788, 1789, and 1790 (London: T. Cadell, 1797), 75, 78. There is no French equivalent to the rich historiography on the profitability of British Caribbean and US plantations; the closest is Caroline Oudin-Bastide and Philippe Steiner, Calcul et morale: Coûts de l’esclavage et valeur de l’émancipation (XVIIIe–XIXe siècle) (Paris: Albin Michel, 2015), which mostly repeats contemporary claims.

  23. “La sécheresse,” “un ouragan pareil,” “34 ans” from FBL to PB (June 29, 1776, Nov. 24, 1780, Apr. 18, 1784), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN. “Un temps semblable” from [FBL] to [Count of Polastron] (Feb. 28, 1788), E691, ADLA. On losses at the pottery (23,000 livres in 1784–1785), see “Inventaire” (July 20, 1786), et/LXXXVI/847, AN. On Manquets, see FBL to PB (Aug. 27, 1778), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN.

  24. For production figures, see 261 MIOM, ANOM.

  25. On FBL’s shortcomings, see [Valsemey?], “Mémoire” (c. Dec. 31, 1785), 261 MIOM, ANOM; Count of Butler to Count of Polastron (Oct. 8, 1788), E691, ADLA.

  26. On the deal with the merchant, see Lardin to M. de Polastron (Oct. 22, 1786), E691, ADLA.

  27. On war costs, see Schama, Citizens, 62, 65. On the budget of the secretary of the navy, see P. Fr. Page, Traité d’économie politique et de commerce des colonies (Paris: Brochot, 1801), 1:143. On the 5 million livres octroi, see MSM-LC, 5:313. “Soutenu” from MSM-LC, 5:670.

  CHAPTER 9: WITNESS, 1788–1791

  1. On the Lejeune case, see F3/90, ANOM; Malick Ghachem, The Old Regime and the Haitian Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 167–210.

  2. No slave ever prevailed in court according to Joan Dayan, Haiti, History, and the Gods (1995; reprint, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 202. But some white owners were sentenced to pay a fine or sell their slave, and a black master was whipped, branded, and sentenced to hard labor; see MSM-LC, 6:622.

  3. On the gouverneur and intendant, see MSM-LC, 4:159, 538; 5:13, 577. The following section on pre-1789 white riots is based on C9A, ANOM; MSM-LC; Charles Frostin, Les révoltes blanches à SD aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Haïti avant 1789) (Paris: L’Ecole, 1975).

  4. “Puissances alliées” (Blin de Villeneuve) from GC-RTSD, 1:149.

  5. On the 1722–1723 revolt, see Pierre de Charlevoix, Histoire de l’Isle Espagnole ou de SD (Amsterdam: François l’Honoré, 1733), 221–312.

  6. Chambers of agriculture were created to dilute the power of the Conseils Supérieurs but they proved just as troublesome; see MSM-LC, 4:281, 603, 862.

  7. “Les administrateurs actuels” from FBL to [Count of Polastron] (May 4, 1788), E691, ADLA.

  8. On balancing the budget, see François Barbé de Marbois, Etat des Finances de SD . . . (Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1790), SA 2151.4.7*, HU-HL. On the capitation tax, see FBL to Count of Noé (June 12, 1787), JLD-PHD. On the labor tax, see PB to FBL (Apr. 22, 1784), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN; de Marbois to La Luzerne (July 20, 1788), E362 ter, ANOM.

  9. On transatlantic contacts, see Brissot de Warville to Benjamin Franklin (Jan. 20, 1790), Micr. XR572:11, HSP.

  10. On reformist administrators, see Pierre-Victor de Malouet to M. de Barré (Dec. 28, 1777), d. 492, 73J87, ADGir; Michel Hilliard d’Auberteuil, Considérations sur l’état présent de la colonie française de SD (Paris: Grangé, 1776), 1:vii, 130–146; Pierre Pluchon, TL (Paris: Fayard, 1989), 23. For the ordinance, see MSM-LC, 6:655. “Nous ne serons plus les maîtres” from FBL to PB (Apr. 16, 1785), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN.

  11. “Slaves” from Auberteuil, Considérations, 2:13.

  12. “Le découragement est général” from FBL to [Count of Polastron] (May 4, 1788), E691, ADLA. On Saint-Martin’s resignation, see De Marbois to La Luzerne (Oct. 12, 1788), E362 ter, ANOM. On the merger of the superior courts, see also MSM-DPF, 2:343–345. The Conseil Supérieur of Cap was reestablished in January 1790; see Assemblée Provinciale du Nord, “Discours” (Jan. 11, 1790), CC9A/4, ANOM.

  13. “Un désordre affreux” from FBL to PB (Apr. 16, 1785), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN. “Il ne man
que aux nègres” (passage probably written by Diderot, and which does not feature in all editions) from Guillaume Raynal, Histoire philosophique et politique des établissements et du commerce des Européens dans les deux Indes (La Haye: 1774), 4:226. On TL allegedly reading Raynal (a story possibly invented to emphasize his long-standing love of liberty), see Moniteur Universel (Jan. 9, 1799).

  14. On the rebels’ late embrace of independence, see Philippe Girard, “Birth of a Nation: The Creation of the Haitian Flag and Haiti’s French Revolutionary Heritage,” Journal of Haitian Studies 15, nos. 1–2 (Spring–Fall 2009): 135–150.

  15. “Le climat en fera raison” FBL to PB (Dec. 13, 1785), d. 12, 18AP/3, AN.

  16. On duels, see Honoré le Comte, “Mémoire” (July 1, 1779), c9a/147, ANOM. On the riot, see MSM-DPF, 1:287.

  17. “Cela fait horreur” from FBL to Mr. and Mrs. de Polastron (July 28, 1787), E691, ADLA. The following overview of the white revolution in 1789–1791 is based mainly on GC-RTSD; Louis de Blanchelande, “Mémoire . . . sur son administration” (July 1, 1791), 1-SIZE E791.B641m, JCB. On the colonial debate in France, see also Yves Bénot, La révolution française et la fin des colonies (Paris: La Découverte, 1988).

  18. On Noé as a deputy, 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), 191, 197. On the Club Massiac, see David Geggus and Norman Fiering, eds., The World of the Haitian Revolution (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009), 203.

  19. “ON EST IVRE DE LIBERTE” from Correspondance secrète des colons députés à l’Assemblée Constituante (Paris: Anjubault, c. Feb. 1794), 7.

  20. “Inconcevable révolution” from Count of Polastron to Viscount of Butler (Oct. 17, 1789), E691, ADLA. “Une espèce d’anarchie” from Jean Langlois de Laheuse to Count of Noé (June 24, 1789), JLD-PHD.

  21. For the constitution, see “Décret de l’Assemblée Générale” (May 28, 1790), Folder 1A, HU-KFC. For other laws of the assembly, see PMD-PH, 1:22–27.

  22. “Licencier les troupes réglées” from M. de Villevaleix to Count of Polastron (July 31, 1790), E691, ADLA. On dissatisfaction with the assembly, see also Extrait des archives de l’assemblée provinciale du nord de SD (Cap: Imprimerie Royale, June 30, 1790), *FC7.H1277A.790e, HU-HL. On the exile of the léopardins, see Journals and M.S. Papers of Nathaniel Cutting, esq., pp. 400–450, P-275, reel 1, MHS; d’Augy et al. to [Assemblée Nationale?] (Sept. 13, 1790), p. 15, F/3/196, ANOM.

  23. On Blanchelande, see Jeremy Popkin, “The French Revolution’s Royal Governor: General Blanchelande and Saint Domingue, 1790–92,” William and Mary Quarterly 71, no. 2 (Apr. 2014): 203–228. On Mauduit’s death, see PMD-PH, 1:26–29, 39–40. A powerless interim intendant remained in Port-au-Prince; see the Proisy letters in F/3/197, ANOM.

  24. “Surrounded by mulattoes” from Francis de Wimpffen, A Voyage to Saint Domingo in the Years 1788, 1789, and 1790 (London: T. Cadell, 1797), 335.

  25. On Raimond, see John D. Garrigus, Before Haiti: Race and Citizenship in French SD (New York: Palgrave, 2006), 1, 234–249.

  26. On calls for equality among free people of color, see Michel Mina, Adresse à l’Assemblée Nationale par les hommes de couleur libres de SD (c. July 1790). “Je fis la rencontre d’un blanc” from Thomas Madiou, Histoire d’Haïti (Port-au-Prince: Courtois, 1847), 2:125.

  27. “Voilà l’Esclave” in “Copie du Mémoire du Sr Ogé” (Sept. 7, 1789), D/XXV/58, AN (document communicated by John Garrigus). The following overview of the Ogé revolt is based on D/XXV/58, AN; E 325 and E 396, ANOM; F3/196, ANOM. The two best studies of Ogé are Beaubrun Ardouin, Etudes sur l’histoire d’Haïti, suivies de la vie du général J-M Borgella (Paris: Dezobry et Magdeleine, 1853–1860), 1:133–163; John Garrigus, “Vincent Ogé Jeune (1757–91): Social Class and Free Colored Mobilization on the Eve of the Haitian Revolution,” Americas 68, no. 1 (July 2011): 33–62. Drawing from Ogé’s interrogation, in which he minimized his role, Garrigus portrays Ogé as a more moderate figure than Ardouin does drawing from Spanish sources (I tend to side with Ardouin).

  28. On Veuve Ogé, see Poissac and Dupuy, “Mémoire” (c. 1777), E 396, ANOM. “I begin not to care” (citing Ogé) from Thomas Clarkson to [Joseph Arnould] (Aug. 13, 1828), in Charles Mackenzie, Notes on Haiti Made During a Residence in That Republic (1830; reprint, London: Frank Cass, 1971), 2:246–250.

  29. “Nous nommerons des électeurs” from Ogé jeune to M. [Alexandre] de Vincent (Oct. 29, 1790), d. 770, D/XXV/78, AN. For other letters sent the same day, see F/3/196, p. 111, ANOM.

  30. “Si nous n’avons que ces ennemis” from Mr. de Villevaleix to Count of Polastron (Oct. 31, 1790), E691, ADLA.

  31. “Cherchant à être assimilé aux blancs” from “Jacques Ogé dit Jacquot” (March 9–10, 1791), p. 393, F/3/196, ANOM. “Dans le cas où ils auraient du dessous” from “Copie de la Deposition faitte par le nommé Blanc” (Nov. 3, 1790), D/XXV/58, AN. “Brigands” from Ardouin, Etudes, 1:133–163. On Ogé’s extradition, see Carlos Esteban Deive, Los Refugiados Franceses en Santo Domingo, 1789–1801 (Santo Domingo: Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña, 1984), 71.

  32. TL possibly knew Ogé because (1) TL had managed a coffee estate near Grande-Rivière in 1779–1781; (2) Ogé tried to recruit a coachman of FBL’s brother’s in-law Guillaume Bullet; see “Extraits de lettres du Cap” (Oct. 30, 1790), F3/196, p. 115, ANOM; (3) Fleury, who signed the Nov. 17, 1785, death certificate of TL’s son, may be the same Fleury who was an ally of Ogé and later a mayor of Cap. On Jean-Baptiste Cap, see Attorney of Clément plantation, “Révolution de SD” (c. Oct. 10, 1792), F3/131, ANOM.

  33. On Ogé’s sentence, see Arrêt du Conseil Supérieur du Cap contre le nommé Ogé jeune et ses accomplices, du 5 mars 1791 (Cap Français, 1791).

  34. “La liberté” from TL, “Frères et amis” (Aug. 29, 1793), d. 1490, aa53/a, AN. On TL’s later misgivings when he began to see mixed-race revolutionaries as political rivals, see TL to Laveaux (Apr. 21, 1796), fr. 12104, BNF. “La haine de Toussaint” from Philippe Roume to Pierre Forfait (Dec. 2, 1801), Roume Papers, LC-MD.

  35. The famous quote “périssent les colonies plutôt qu’un principe” is an amalgam of two sentences by the deputies Dupont and Robespierre; see Moniteur Universel (May 15, 1791) (both men were likely inspired by the entry “Traite des nègres” in the 1766 Encyclopédie). “Le spectacle du désordre” from “Instructions du Roi” (Aug. 10, 1791), F/3/197, ANOM. On the 1791 instructions, see also docs. 137–139, B277, ANOM.

  36. “Massive resistance” from d’Augy to Habitants de la Province du Nord de SD (June 7, 1791), Box 1, Sc. MG 119, NYPL-SC. “Civil war” from Sylvanus Bourne to [US Secretary of State?] (July 14, 1791), RG 59, Microfilm M446/1, NARA-CP.

  CHAPTER 10: REBEL, 1791

  1. “La négresse Pélagie” from Maître Grimperel, “Mise en possession” (July 5, 1789), E691, ADLA. Pélagie was first mentioned in Philippe Girard and Jean-Louis Donnadieu, “Toussaint Before Louverture: New Archival Findings on the Early Life of TL,” William and Mary Quarterly 70, no. 1 (Jan. 2013): 49.

  2. “Effrayantes” from Villevaleix to Count of Polastron (Aug. 31, 1790), E691, ADLA.

  3. “Chasse” from Alexandre de Vincent, [Untitled] (Dec. 4, 1789), d. 1509, AA54/b, AN. “Parfaitement contents” from Villevaleix to Polastron (July 31, 1790), E691, ADLA.

  4. “LES GENS SUSPECTS” from Correspondance secrète des colons députés à l’Assemblée Constituante (Paris: Anjubault, c. Feb. 1794), 11. “Les ports” and “plus sages que les blancs” from Villevaleix to Polastron (Oct. 31 and Dec. 31, 1789), E691, ADLA. “Un bien mauvais exemple” from Jean Langlois de Laheuse to Count of Noé (June 24, 1789), JLD-PHD. “Dès les premiers troubles” from Pamphile de Lacroix, Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de la révolution de SD (Paris: Pillet, 1819), 1:404.

  5. “Malgré les soins” from TL to Directoire (Aug. 25, 1797), in H. Pauléus Sannon, Histoire de TL (Por
t-au-Prince: Héraux, 1933), 1:8 (Sannon cites AF/III/210 as the source, but the letter was missing from the box when I went through it in 2010). On TL subscribing to newspapers, see Moniteur Universel (Jan. 9, 1799). “Conversations indiscrètes” from de Peynier and de Proisy to César de la Luzerne (Dec. 1, 1789), C9A/162, ANOM. Dunmore anecdote provided by David Geggus.

  6. “Les blancs esclaves” from Marbois to La Luzerne (Oct. 10, 1789), C9A/162, ANOM. “Ils n’entendaient pas que la révolution” from TL to Charles de Talleyrand (Apr. 13, 1799), d. 1, EE1734, ANOM.

  7. On other revolts before Aug. 1791, see Marcel Dorigny, ed., The Abolitions of Slavery: From Léger Félicité Sonthonax to Victor Schoelcher, 1793, 1794, 1848 (New York: Berghahn, 2003), 147–154.

  8. For the alleged plot, see Céligni Ardouin, Essais sur l’Histoire d’Haïti (Port-au-Prince: T. Bouchereau, 1865), 16; SGU, LEG, 7157, 3, AGS. The following account of the slave revolt is based on DXXV, AN (esp. boxes 1, 12, 78), and F3, ANOM (esp. ledgers 131, 196, 197).

  9. On rumors, see Wim Klooster, “Slave Revolts, Royal Justice, and a Ubiquitous Rumor in the Age of Revolutions,” William and Mary Quarterly 71, no. 3 (July 2014): 401–424.

  10. “Il savait lire et écrire” from François de Kerversau, “Rapport sur la partie française de SD” (March 22, 1801), Box 2/66, UF-RP. For mentions of a royalist plot by Biassou, Jean-François, Boukman, and Rouvray, see Biassou to Delahaye (Dec. 18, 1792), CC9A/6, ANOM; Lehoux, “Extrait des pièces” (March 15, 1792), d. 758, *D/XXV/16, AN; “Révolution de SD” (c. Oct. 10, 1792), F3/131, ANOM; Malcolm E. McIntosh and Bernard C. Weber, eds., Une correspondance familiale au temps des troubles de SD: Lettres du marquis et de la marquise de Rouvray à leur fille (Paris: Larose, 1959), 64.

  11. “Il nous dit que le roi” (account by the mulatto slave François Chapotin, who cited an unnamed quadroon) in “Rapport de la municipalité du Limbé” (c. Aug. 22, 1791), Sc. Micro R-2228, reel 6, NYPL-SC. On documents possibly distributed before the revolt, see David Geggus, “Print Culture and the Haitian Revolution: The Written and the Spoken Word,” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 116, no. 2 (Oct. 2006): 304, 307. For the forged letter, see SGU, LEG, 7157, 3, AGS.