François Dominique Toussaint L'Ouverture, Letter to the Directory François Dominique Toussaint L'Ouverture was an educated former slave and soldier of the king that would eventually lead the revolution against French rule in Saint-Domingue. The prime objective of Toussaint’s letter to the Directory of France was to end colonial tyranny and declared an end to slavery in Saint-Domingue (Haiti) by utilizing the language of freedom and equality in reminisce of the French revolution. Toussaint fiercely pursued the abolition of slavery, as his letter warned the Directory of France against the reinstatement of slavery. Although Toussaint was captured in 1802 and executed in 1803 by the orders of Napoleon Bonaparte, his movement lived on. The French ultimately failed to recapture the island of Saint-Domingue, declaring the independent state of Haiti in 1804. The Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe, Martinique and Saint Domingue were very important to the French economy due to its high sugar trade and increasing its profits through slavery. After the Fall of Louis XVI The National Assembly was considering the question of rights for free men of color. Saint Domingue had 40,000 whites and 30,000 free people of color along with 500,000 slaves. In 1790 the free people of color sent a delegation to Paris to be seated, accentuating that they are property owners and some even of European descent. The assembly later refused to seat them sparking a rebellion among free people of color, which spoke of an independence from France. French colonial authorities suppressed the first rebellion quickly and brutally killed Vincent Oge, a member of the Delegation to Paris and leader of the first rebellion and most of his followers. In 1791 Oge’s execution... ... middle of paper ... ...e Earth and Its Peoples, Second Edition. CENGAGE LEARNING, n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. . Coffin, Judith G., and Robert C. Stacey. "CHAPTER 18 PAGES 668-669." Western Civilizations: Their History & Their Culture. 16TH ed. Vol. 2. New York, NY: W. W. Norton &, 2008. N. pag. Print. Katz, William L. Toussaint L’Ouverture and the Haitian Revolution by William Loren Katz. HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY, n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. . Williams, Kevin. "Historical Text Archive: Electronic History Resources, Online since 1990." Historical Text Archive: Electronic History Resources, Online since 1990. Donald J. Mabry / The Historical Text Archive, n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. .
Louverture was tough a tough leader. In 1793, he commanded a rebel army of 4,000 troops against the French. Louverture’s tough, leadership qualities allowed him to quickly become commander-in-chief of the army in Saint Domingue. As commander-in-chief, Toussaint ran an orderly camp where he trained men in both guerilla tactics and the European shoulder-to-shoulder style of war. He defeated the British, became ruler of Saint Domingue and conquered Santo Domingo, the Spanish part of the island.
Reviving the crumbling Saint-Domingue economy was a crucial determining factor in France’s involvement with the colony. Toussaint’s ability to create a thriving economy would determine his position as a leader. If he was unable to create a stable economy, then there was someone else that could replace him. This revival was key to slavery not being re-imposed in the colony. Toussaint L’Ouverture had to prove that the Saint Domingue colony could succeed and be profitable within a slaveless economy. As much as he could comprehend the morality of ending slavery, he was also very aware of the importance slavery had to the West Indies in maintaining France’s economy. Although there are some arguments that state that slavery’s importance to their
Haiti began as the French colony of Saint-Domingue. The island was filled with plantations and slaves working on them. Almost a decade and a half after its settlement, this colony paved the way for many changes throughout the French empire and many other slave nations. Through its difficult struggle, we examine whether the slave revolt of Saint-Domingue that began in the late 16th century was justifiable and whether its result in creating the free nation of Haiti was a success. The slave insurrection began in August 1791 in Saint-Domingue.
Toussaint L’Ouverture was the leader of one of most famous slave revolts of all time. A French island colony
Just when the American Constitution was going into effect in 1789, a revolution broke out in France. Just like the Americans, the French also proclaimed that men are born and remain free and have equal rights. But did this apply to the slaves in France’s overseas colonies? Mainly I will discuss the role played by race in the Haitian Revolution in this paper. France did not possess many colonies in the New World. The three Caribbean colonies of Saint Domingue (today’s republic of Haiti), Guadeloupe, and Martinique contained almost as many slaves as the thirteen original American colonies. Race was a key factor in the decision of France to abolish slavery in all of
French occupation of Haiti began in the mid seventeenth century. For the next century and a half, the people of Haiti were forced to abandon their livelihoods and instead take up residence on namely sugar, indigo or cacao plantations in order to generate exports for the French market. Conditions on these plantations were often so cruel and oppressive that the common cause of death was exhaustion. No longer able to yield to the terms of their exploitation, Haitians participated in a string of slave revolts, the most prominent of which was led by Toussaint Louverture from 1791, which paved the road for Haitian emancipation. This essay will advance the idea that colonialism has impeded the political stability of Haiti during the nineteenth century, particularly from when Haiti formally declared independence in 1804. It will cover how issues such as; despotism, conflicting economic institutions, the militarization of the political system and racial supremacy, have negatively affected nineteenth century Haitian politics. Moreover, it will also elaborate on how these issues are, in effect, actually insidious derivatives of French rule during pre-independent Haiti.
The island of Saint-Domingue was made up of a mixture of people including whites from France, creoles, free people of color, and slaves. Once sugar became a major cash crop on the island, an estimated half-million African slaves were brought in to work the land. These slaves outnumbered their white masters more than ten to one and made up the majority of the island inhabitants. Even so, the island had the most secure slave regime in the Caribbean because of the cooperation between masters and free men of color. Due to the difficult policing jobs given to the freed men with little reward, the communication between them and the white masters broke down. Now that the white slaveholders were on their own, it was only a matter of time before their brutal treatment of slaves would lead to an uprising. Once enslaved Africans received word of the revolution in France they too began demanding freedom. After years of civil unrest and vicious fighting, Haiti declared its freedom from France in January of 1804. What makes the Haitian Revolution more radical than the two before it is the fact that it was led by slaves. Throughout the previous revolutions, the main goal was for white men, essentially, to be free from oppressive government rule. There were few thoughts regarding the rights of slaves, even though they too were men. The fact that this group of people were able to remove the colonial authority and establish their own country during this period of time was particularly radical and unheard
Haiti, previously known as Saint-Domingue, was a slave island and one of the wealthiest of France’s colonies. Up until this point in time, slavery was still common and, as mentioned above, continued throughout the world even after such freedom declarations such as, the Declaration of Independence in the newly formed United States, and the Declaration of Rights of Man in the Republic of France. The Haitian Revolution was brought on by the want for liberation of slaves, and was largely inspired by the French Revolution and the Declaration of Rights of Man. “Even though the early leaders of the French Revolution had no intention of exporting the upheaval, it spread to the colonies, especially to Saint-Domingue” (Ott 1973). This revolution proved to be a major event as it was the most successful slave revolution in history. The slavery population in Haiti, vastly outnumbered the white colonists in Haiti, and therefore, when the slave population banded together, led to a full-scaled rebellion. Revolts would continue to occur until finally in 1793, the slaves got their freedom, with slavery officially being abolished in all French territories in 1794. From this point until 1802, small rebellions continued to occur as not much changed in the daily lives of slaves, despite technically having their freedom. After the French Revolution and with Napoleon taking power in 1799; Napoleon reinstated slavery in all French colonies, including Haiti. Napoleon also sent an army to Haiti to enforce these new slavery laws and Haiti returned to a slave economy in 1802 (Doyle 1943). The Haitian Revolutionaries finally get their win after defeating the French soldiers in the Battle of Vertieres in 1803; the final part of the revolution. The revolution officially ended in 1804, with Haiti gaining its independence from France and permanently abolishing slavery
Early in the nineteenth century rebellion against European authority broke out in Latin America. First, slaves on the island of Haiti revolted against their French masters. Led by former slave Toussaint L'Overture the Haitians defeated France making Haiti the...
In Haiti existed a system of degradation and denial of humanity itself towards human beings only because they were born with a black skin. While emphasis is made on the fact that the blacks were the majority of the population at the time of the revolution, it is brought up that at the outset the white indentured or contracted servants "worked and lived side by side in near equal numbers with black slaves" (Fick 15). This suggests that if we consider an indentured worker or worker under contract to be a financial slave living in the same condition as a black slave, that slaves did not necessarily have to be black. Slavery began because there was the need for labor to work on plantations of sugar and tobacco. Once the black slave took the place of the white indentured worker, a system of classes emerged. The middle class white man was the absentee planter enjoying the amassed fortune in France. The middle class were also the agents or managers of the absentee planter striving and sometimes at...
1789 marked a historic year in the struggles against slavery in the French colony of Saint-Domingue. The French Revolution played an important part in influencing the Haitian Revolution of 1791; it gave way to the Haitian Revolution which consisted of many other separate revolutions that occurred at the same time. Saint-Domingue, now known as Haiti, had the most wealth in terms of crops that could be excavated by black slaves. Toussaint l’Overture was a former black slave who was forced to pick up these crops; little did he know he was the person who sparked the Haitian Revolution. Toussaint, the leader of the Revolution, was the first person to strike. He took on a white planter who was controlling slaves, on August 21, 1791. Many people during this time period wondered how and why this revolution took place, Michel-Rolph Trouillot even stated that it was unthinkable. In his book, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History, Trouillot argues that the Haitian Revolution was and remains unimaginable today; the ideas of race and slavery are challenged, along with the ostracism of Haiti.
Coffin, Judith, Joshua Cole, Robert Stacey, and Carol Symes. 2011. Western Civilizations. New York, London: W. W. Norton & Company.
However, one of the greatest differences in their outcomes was that France emerged as a new, firm government as Haiti staggered with its new independence. In September 1791, France achieved the movement of freeing and outlawing slavery. In turn, Haitian slaves were inspired to do the same by revolting against French plantation owners. This transformative movement of 100,000 slaves was led by Toussaint L’Ouverture.
Haiti had over a half million enslaved Africans working on sugar plantations owned by the French. The sugar was hugely profitable, but conditions for enslaved worker were horrendous. Many were cruelly over worked and under fed. Haiti also had a population of both free and enslaved mulattoes. Free mulattoes, however, had few right and were badly treated by the French. In 1791, a slave revolt exploded in northern Haiti. Under the able leadership of Toussaint L'Ouverture, Haitians would fight for freedom and pave the way for throwing off French rule.
...ael; Heinl, Nancy Gordon (2005) [1996]. Written in Blood: The Story of the Haitian People, 1492–1995 (2nd Ed.). Lanham, Md; London: Univ. Press of America