Toussaint Louverture

  10. On FBL, see Sonthonax to TL (July 4, 1797), fr. 8988, BNF; TL to Directory (July 18, 1797), *F7/7321, AN.

  11. “D’un esprit borné” from Sonthonax to Directory (Jan. 30, 1798), AF/III, 210, AN.

  12. “Il se répandrait du sang” from TL to Raimond (Aug. 23, 1797), d. 961, AF/III, 210, AN.

  13. On Sonthonax being homesick, see Sonthonax to his daughter (May 14, [1797]), ASO-1, UPR-NC.

  14. “Gravées dans ma mémoire” from TL, Extrait du rapport adressé au Directoire Exécutif (Cap Français: Roux, Sept. 4, 1797), d. 961, AF/III, 210, AN. For a different account of the conversation, see Sonthonax to Bauvais (Aug. 18, 1797), fr. 8988, BNF.

  15. “Toussaint ne parle” from Sonthonax to Directory (Jan. 30, 1798), AF/III, 210, AN. On Sonthonax being forgotten, see Serge Barcellini, “A la recherche d’une mémoire disparue,” Revue Française d’Histoire d’Outre-Mer 84, no. 316 (Fall 1997): 121–158.

  16. On Raimond, see TL to Raimond (Apr. 10, 1798), Papers of TL, LC-MD. On Desfourneaux, see TL to Raimond (Aug. 28, 1797), Autograph File, T., HU-HL. On Mentor, see Anon., Histoire de TL (Paris: Pillot, 1802), 57–63. On deportations by Sonthonax, see Lecointe-Puyraveau, “Rapport . . . sur les déportés et réfugiés” (March 24, 1797), FR-10V, UPR-NC.

  17. “Nègres ignorants” from Viénot de Vaublanc, Discours sur l’état de SD (May 29, 1797), 7.

  18. “Devint sombre” from Julien Raimond, “Rapport” (Sept. 16, 1798), B277, ANOM. “Affliger les noirs” from TL to Min. of Navy (Oct. 20, 1797), CC9A/14, ANOM.

  19. For Laveaux’s defense, see Laveaux, Réponse d’Etienne Laveaux . . . ([Paris]: J. F. Sobry, June 19, 1797).

  20. “Citoyens français” from TL, Réfutation de quelques assertions d’un discours . . . par Viénot Vaublanc (Cap-Français: Roux, Oct. 29, 1797), 17.

  21. On the deportation of the fructidoriens, see Miranda Frances Spieler, Empire and Underworld: Captivity in French Guyana (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012), 17, 35.

  22. “C’est moi” from Moniteur Universel (Jan. 9, 1799). For favorable press, see also Moniteur Universel (Feb. 3, 1799) and Philadelphia Gazette (March 12, 1799). “L’opinion publique se forme” from Pascal to TL (Apr. 12, 1799), Sc. Micro R-2228, reel 5, NYPL-SC.

  23. On Hédouville’s arrival, see Dorvo-Soulastre, Voyage par terre de Santo-Domingo . . . au Cap-Français (Paris: Chaumerot, 1809). On Hédouville’s background, see W/51/3331/31, AN. For his instructions, see B277, ANOM. The following account of Hédouville’s 1798 tenure is also based on CC9A/18–19 and CC9B/6–9, ANOM; PMD-PH, vol. 2; Box 1, Sc. MG 119, NYPL-SC; Ms. Hait. 68–72, BPL.

  24. “Paraissent de bouche” from TL to Hédouville (Apr. 11, 1798), CC9B/6, ANOM. “Pas assez grand” from Pamphile de Lacroix, Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de la révolution de SD (Paris: Pillet, 1819), 1:340. TL offered to retire in TL to Raimond (May 9, 1798), B277, ANOM.

  25. “Si pas gagné soldats” from Pierre Pluchon, TL (Paris: Fayard, 1989), 227. “Il s’est récrié” from Hédouville to Directoire (c. 1798), CC9A/19, ANOM.

  26. “Ce malheureux vieillard” from TL to Philippe Létombe (June 4, 1798), Ms. Hait. 72–3, BPL.

  27. “Vous êtes coupables” from PMD-PH, 2:19.

  28. “Tant de déférence” from TL to Hédouville (Sept. 2, 1798), CC9B/6, ANOM.

  29. On proposing to resign, see TL to Hédouville (Sept. 5, 1798), Ms. Hait. 71–19 (2), BPL. “Imprécations horribles” from Hédouville, “Rapport” (c. Dec. 1798), AF/III, 210, AN.

  30. On the incident of Fort-Liberté, see TL to Dessalines (Oct. 1798), Autograph File, T., HU-HL; Hédouville, “Rapport” (c. Dec. 5, 1798), AF/III, 210, AN; PMD-PH, 2:30.

  31. “Croit-il me faire peur?” from François de Kerversau, “Rapport sur la partie française de SD” (March 22, 1801), Box 2/66, UF-RP. For the memoir and the petitions, 1-SIZE E799.T734e and 1-SIZE E799.A774d, JCB.

  32. “Surprise” from Eustache Bruix to TL (Feb. 12, 1799), CC9A/22, ANOM.

  CHAPTER 15: DIPLOMAT, 1798–1800

  1. On the dinner, see Ronald Johnson, Diplomacy in Black and White: John Adams, TL, and Their Atlantic World Alliance (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2014), 19.

  2. “La plus grande surprise” from TL to John Adams (Nov. 6, 1798), M9/1, NARA-CP.

  3. On Bunel (who is often erroneously described as mixed race), 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.

  4. “Toussaint clause” from Gordon S. Brown, Toussaint’s Clause: The Founding Fathers and the Haitian Revolution (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2005), 138.

  5. “Commercial intercourse” from Pickering to TL (March 4, 1799), M28/5, NARA-CP. Though TL attributed Adams’s snub to racial reasons, Adams may have refused to write in person simply because TL was not a fellow head of state.

  6. “A mériter” from Roume, “Extrait de la lettre de l’agent” (Nov. 22, 1798), BN08270 / lot 132, UF-RP. This account of Roume’s public record in 1799–1801 is based on Roume Papers, LC-MD; CC9A/21–26 and CC9B/1–2, ANOM.

  7. “Ne rien faire” from Roume, “Aux républicains français” (Jan. 23, 1799), CC9B/9, ANOM.

  8. On Roume’s personal life, see “Contrat de mariage” (Feb. 19, 1799) and “Acte de naissance” (Nov. 19, 1799), ET/XXXI/703, AN.

  9. This account of TL’s diplomacy with Stevens and Maitland is based on M9/1–2, NARA-CP; CO 137/102–103, ADM 1/249–250, and WO 1/72, BNA; Philippe Girard, “Black Talleyrand: TL’s Secret Diplomacy with England and the United States,” William and Mary Quarterly 66, no. 1 (Jan. 2009): 87–124.

  10. “Dignified prisoner” from Edward Stevens to Timothy Pickering (June 24, 1799), 208 MI/1, AN. “De ma main” from Roume to Min. of Navy (July 3, 1799), Roume Papers, LC-MD.

  11. For Hamilton’s constitution, see Hamilton to Pickering (Feb. 21, 1799), P-31, reel 24, p. 103, MHS. “Taking his measures” from Stevens to Pickering (Feb. 13, 1800), 208 MI/1, AN.

  12. “L’enfant adoptif” from TL to Roume (Oct. 29, 1799), CC9A/26, ANOM. “Il le ferait couper” 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), 248.

  13. “Rebelle” from Hédouville to Roume (Oct. 22, 1798), CC9A/20, ANOM. On Rigaud’s background, see “Etat de services d’André Rigaud” (Dec. 1, 1795), 8Yd638, SHD-DAT. This account of the War of the South is based on PMD-PH, vol. 2; CC9A/21–26, ANOM; CO 137/103–104, BNA; M9/1–2, NARA-CP.

  14. “Lever le bras gauche” (possibly a Vodou reference) from PMD-PH, 2:52. For estimates of each army, see Thomas Maitland to Earl of Balcarres (June 17, 1799), CO 137/102, BNA; Stevens to Pickering (June 24, 1799), 208 MI/1, AN.

  15. On the assassination attempt, see Patrick Fletcher to Stoddert (Aug. 14, 1799), M625/199, NARA-DC. On mass drowning (a tactic reused by the French in 1802), see Hugh Cathcart to Maitland (Oct. 31, 1799), WO 1/74, BNA; Urbain Devaux to Forfait (Dec. 2, 1799), CC9A/23, AN; PMD-PH, 2:107, 120, 127. “L’époux d’une mulâtresse” from Roume, “Discours” (July 18, 1799), CC9B/9, ANOM.

  16. “Liberty and the French” from “At a Council Held in Santiago de la Vega” (Dec. 5, 1799), CO 137/103, BNA. On the Sasportas expedition, see Gabriel Debien and Pierre Pluchon, “Un plan d’invasion de la Jamaïque en 1799 et la politique anglo-américaine de TL,” Revue de la Société Haïtienne d’Histoire, de Géographie et de Géologie 36, no. 119 (July 1978): 3–72.

  17. “Toussaint may fairly claim” from Balcarres to Duke of Portland (Oct. 28, 1799), CO 137/103, BNA.

  18. “La nature a frémi en moi” from Isaac Sasportas to Balcarres (Dec. 20, 1799), NLS-CM.

  19. “Solidarity” from Boaz Anglade, ed., Jean-Bertrand Aristide in His Own Words: A Collection of the Haitian President’s Speeches with Illustrative Notes (Lulu, 2010), 72.

  20. On the refusal to expor
t the slave revolt, see TL to Army of SD (Apr. 26, 1801), CO 137/106, BNA; Julia Gaffield, ed., The Haitian Declaration of Independence: Creation, Context, and Legacy (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015), 42.

  21. “A la mamelle” and other quotes from TL, “Proclamation” (July 19, July 30, Aug. 23, and Sept. 9, 1799) CC9B/9, ANOM.

  22. “N’a pas moi Nègre” from PMD-PH, 2:80.

  23. “Long ago” from TL to Cathcart (Dec. 19, 1799), WO 1/74, BNA.

  24. “The character” from Thomas Maitland to Hyde Parker (May 31, 1799), CO 137/102, BNA. “Cet être à grosses lèvres” (citing approvingly a French planter) from Parker to Earl of Balcarres (June 30, 1800), CO 137/105, BNA.

  25. On US naval assistance to TL, see M149/1 and M625/199–200, NARA-DC. On Perry, see MS Am 1815.1, HU-HL; Johnson, Diplomacy in Black and White, 124.

  26. On mistreating the mission of Charles Vincent, Jean-Baptiste Michel, Julien Raimond, see Vincent to Pierre Forfait (June 17, 1800), CC9A/28, ANOM; Michel to Forfait (Dec. 26, 1800), d. 6, AF/IV/1213, AN.

  27. On Geneviève Chancy, see Pierre Bardin, “Langlois de Chancy-TL,” Généalogie et Histoire de la Caraïbe 92 (Apr. 1997): 1944. On Didine Gustave, see Placide David, Sur les rives du passé: Choses de SD (1947; reprint, Ottawa: Leméac, 1972), 99.

  28. “Moüe di’ yo baliser” from Michel-Etienne Descourtilz, Voyage d’un naturaliste et ses observations (Paris: Dufart, 1809), 3:261. For high and low estimates of the massacres, see Thomas Madiou, Histoire d’Haïti (Port-au-Prince: Courtois, 1847), 2:68; C. L. R. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution (1963; reprint, New York: Vintage Books, 1989), 236.

  29. “Pardonnez nous nos offenses” from PMD-PH, 2:164. On the ceremony, see also Vincent, “Précis des principaux événements” (c. Nov. 1801), MS. 619, BFV-FM.

  CHAPTER 16: PLANTER, 1800–1801

  1. “Dieu avait dit” (Matthew 7:7) and other quotes from TL, [Report to Laveaux] (Feb. 14–20, 1796), fr. 12104, BNF.

  2. “Conduire comme des aveugles” from TL, “Proclamation” (Apr. 25, 1796), fr. 12104, BNF.

  3. On Lafayette’s experiment in Guiana, see Box 3:21–25, Lafayette Collection, CUL.

  4. On burned estates, see Anon., “Mémoire de ce qui est parvenu . . .” (c. Oct. 1, 1791), d. 772, D/XXV/78, AN.

  5. On US abolitionists, see Convention of Abolitionist Societies to Society of the Friends of the Blacks (May 9, 1797), Micr. XR572:29, HSP. “Un désert” from Gabriel Debien, “TL et quelques quartiers de SD vus par des colons (octobre 1799–janvier 1800),” Revue Française d’Histoire d’Outre-Mer 142 (1954): 113–124. For production statistics, see Barré de Saint-Venant, Des colonies modernes sous la zone torride, et particulièrement de celle de SD (Paris: Brochot, 1802), 51. These figures are consistent with tariff records indicating that the French-occupied part of the colony exported only 1.5 million livres in 1797; see Hédouville to Bruix (June 10, 1798), CC9B/7, ANOM.

  6. “Nos mines” from Thomas Gragnon-Lacoste, TL (Paris: Durand, 1877), 216.

  7. On financial problems, see Edward Stevens to Timothy Pickering (Jan. 29, 1800), 208 MI/1, AN; TL, “Règlement” (May 15, July 3, and Nov. 5, 1800), CC9B/9, ANOM.

  8. “Blanc noir” (referring to TL’s aide-de-camp Augustin d’Hébécourt) from “Rapport-d’Hébécourt” (Jan.–Feb. 1803), B7/9, SHD-DAT.

  9. On TL’s assets, see 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): 72; Alain Turnier, Quand la nation demande des comptes (Port-au-Prince: Le Natal, 1989), 35.

  10. For TL’s salary, see art. 41 of the 1801 constitution (the franc was the new name of the livre). “Je n’ai jamais été riche” from “TL au Fort de Joux,” Nouvelle Revue Rétrospective 94 (Apr. 10, 1902): 12.

  11. On seizing émigré estates, see Etienne de Polverel and Léger-Félicité Sonthonax, “Proclamation” (Apr. 18, 1793), CC9A/8, ANOM. On estates run by the Domaines, see 135AP3, AN; PMD-PH, 2:16.

  12. For legal procedures, see “Loi concernant l’organisation constitutionnelle des colonies” (Jan. 1, 1798), CC9B/9, ANOM; Hédouville, “Extrait du registre” (July 14, 1798), Log. 1814.F, LCP. For estates leased by TL, see 1 SUPSDOM 1–2 and 5 SUPSDOM 2–4, ANOM (documents communicated by Jean-Louis Donnadieu); PMD-PH, 2:40, 58.

  13. “Scheme” from Peter Chazotte, Historical Sketches of the Revolutions, and the Foreign and Civil Wars in the Island of St. Domingo (New York: Applegate, 1840), 18, 20.

  14. “Ne croyez cependant pas” from Sonthonax, “Proclamation” (Aug. 29, 1793), Lk12–28, BNF.

  15. “Le travail” and other quotes from TL to pop. of Verrettes (March 22, 1795), fr. 12103, BNF; TL, [Untitled] (Feb. 14–20, 1796), fr. 12104, BNF; PMD-PH, 2:5; TL, “Discours” (Oct. 5 and Nov. 15, 1798), CC9B/9, AN; Beaubrun Ardouin, Etudes sur l’histoire d’Haïti, suivies de la vie du général J-M Borgella (Paris: Dezobry et Magdeleine, 1853–1860), 4:248; Bulletin Officiel de SD (July 8, 1801).

  16. “Doctrine aussi vicieuse” from TL, “Ordonnance” (Jan. 4, 1800), CC9B/9, ANOM. On the curse, see Thomas Madiou, Histoire d’Haïti (Port-au-Prince: Courtois, 1847), 2:91; PG-MGTL, 27. On corn, see Pamphile de Lacroix, Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de la révolution de SD (Paris: Pillet, 1819), 1:409. On wine, see Morin, “Réflexions . . .” (Aug. 13, 1800), Sc. Micro R-2228, reel 15, NYPL-SC.

  17. On cultivators in the 1792–1793 rebel army, see Fernando Carrera Montero, Las complejas relaciones de España con La Española: El Caribe hispano frente a Santo Domingo y Saint Domingue, 1789–1803 (Santo Domingo: Fundación García Arévalo, 2004), 47; Gabriel Belair to Joaquín García (Sept. 10, 1793), SGU, LEG, 7157, 10, AGS. “En France” from Sonthonax, “Proclamation” (Aug. 29, 1793), Lk12–28, BNF. For later labor codes, see H. Pauléus Sannon, Histoire de TL (PAP: Héraux, 1920), 1:222; Etienne Laveaux, Réponse d’Etienne Laveaux . . . ([Paris]: J. F. Sobry, June 19, 1797), 7; André Rigaud, “La Loi” (Sept. 25, 1794), F3/199, ANOM; Hédouville, “Arrêté concernant la police des habitations” (July 24, 1798), Box 1/47, UF-RP.

  18. “Ne font que courir” from TL, “Proclamation” (Aug. 4, 1800), CC9B/9, ANOM.

  19. “Seront arrêtés et punis” from TL, “Règlement sur la culture” (Oct. 25, 1800), CC9B/9, ANOM. The earliest version was dated Oct. 12, 1800, according to Ardouin, Etudes, 4:247, and PMD-PH, 2:169.

  20. “Libertinage” from TL, “Au nom de la colonie” (Nov. 25, 1801), Sc. Micro R1527, NYPL-SC. On keeping women out of barracks, see art. 9 of TL, “Règlement sur la culture” (Oct. 25, 1800), CC9B/9, ANOM. On unequal pay, see Sonthonax, “Proclamation” (Aug. 29, 1793), Lk12–28, BNF.

  21. “Je vous mènerai” from TL, “Ordonnance” (Oct. 14, 1800), CC9B/9, ANOM.

  22. For TL’s decrees, see TL, “Arrêté” (Feb. 7 and Sept. 30, 1801), CC9B/9, ANOM; art. 16 of the July 1801 constitution.

  23. “Marche-pied” (quoting cultivators in Dondon) from Roume to Forfait (Sept. 25, 1801), BN08270 / lot 132, UF-RP.

  24. “Une balle à la jambe” from TL to Laveaux (June 17, 1795), fr. 12103, BNF. For the penalty for theft (whipping and branding in most instances), see art. 35 and 36 of the 1685 Black Code.

  25. On the Nov. 1800 revolt, see Edward Robinson to Balcarres (Nov. 18, 1800), CO 137/105, BNA; PMD-PH, 2:174. On the Moïse uprising, see chap. 18. On labor abuses in 1800–1801, see PMD-PH, 2:71; Madiou, Histoire d’Haïti, 2:106.

  26. “La révolution en a moissoné” from Philippe Roume, “Moyens proposés . . .” (June 11, 1800), Roume Papers, LC-MD.

  27. On slaves in the United States, see Gazette of the United States 24 (Oct. 29, 1801). “The importation of negroes” from “Council Minutes” (Nov. 19, 1799), CO 137/107, BNA. “Un projet plus vaste” from IL-NH, 69. Several historians have recycled Isaac’s unproven claim, notably C. L. R. James, in The Black Jacobins: TL and the San Domingo Revolution (1963; reprint, New York: Vintage Books, 1989),
265.

  28. On legalizing the slave trade, see art. 17 of the 1801 constitution. On the Bunel mission, see Nugent to [former] Duke of Portland (Sept. 5, 1801), CO 137/106, BNA; PMD-PH, 2:204. On Dessalines and the slave trade, see Philippe Girard, “Jean-Jacques Dessalines and the Atlantic System: A Reappraisal,” William and Mary Quarterly 69, no. 3 (July 2012): 575. On the Royal Dahomets of Christophe, see Antoine Coron, “Le ‘système de défense’ du roi Christophe,” Revue de la BNF 36 (2010): 74–81.

  29. “Le zêle” from TL, Réfutations de quelques assertions d’un discours . . . par Viénot-Vaublanc (Cap: Roux, [Oct. 29], 1797), 11. “La cultu et les commerce” from PG-MGTL, 52.

  30. For production statistics, see Charles Mackenzie, Notes on Haiti Made During a Residence in That Republic (London: Colburn, 1830), 2:159.

  31. On TL’s finances, see PMD-PH, 2:237. On the war chest, see Moniteur Universel (May 28, 1802). On stashes of cash, see Philippe Girard, The Slaves Who Defeated Napoléon: TL and the Haitian War of Independence, 1801–1804 (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2011), 107.

  32. On the rebuilding estimates, which varied from a low of 40 million colonial francs (to provide a mere two hundred plantations with a minimal labor force) to a high of 4 billion (to boost production levels to three times the 1791 peak), see Saint-Venant, Des colonies modernes, 193, 472.

  33. On the Manquets output (500 milliers in 1791), see François Guilbaud to Count of Noé (Jan. 31, 1791), JLD-PHD. “Tous jours ame sicaner” from Jean-Baptiste to Dupuis (July 22, 1800), Box 6:11, (Phi) 1602, HSP. A piastre-gourde was worth 7.5 French colonial livres.

  CHAPTER 17: GOVERNOR GENERAL, EARLY 1801

  1. On the run-up to the takeover, see TL, Procès-verbal de la prise de possession de la partie espagnole (Jan. 27, 1801), Box L-1801, MHS; Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi, ed., Cesión de Santo Domingo a Francia (Ciudad Trujillo: Impresora Dominicana, 1958).

  2. “Se réfugie dans la partie espagnole” from TL to Roume (Oct. 19, 1799), CC9A/26, ANOM. On draft-dodging, see Moyse to Roume (Oct. 14, 1799), CC9A/26, ANOM.

  3. On Rigaud supporters in Santo Domingo, see Hugh Cathcart to Maitland (Nov. 26, 1799), WO 1/74, BNA.