The memoir was first translated and published in English in Toussaint L'Ouverture: A Biography and Autobiography by John R. Beard . Leclercs troops had already ravaged Louvertures properties in Saint-Domingue looking for treasures they accused him of having hidden. Upon entering his cell, Cafarelli described Louverture as feverish and trembling from the cold. While Isaac notes that they were treated like quasi royalty in France, Napoleons wife Josphine, a native of Martinique, confessed that these children were viewed as hostages. Franois-Dominique Toussaint Louverture (French: [fswa dminik tus luvty]; also known as Toussaint L'Ouverture or Toussaint Brda; 20 May 1743 - 7 April 1803) was a Haitian general and the most prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution.During his life, Louverture first fought against the French, then for them, and then finally against France again for the cause of Haitian . He began by renting a small coffee plantation along with its thirteen slaves from his future son-in-law. "[116] The constitution guaranteed equal opportunity and equal treatment under the law for all races, but confirmed Louverture's policies of forced labor and the importation of workers through the slave trade. "Toussaint Louverture: helping Bordeaux come to terms with its slave trade past" (part 1), "Vie et mort du gnral Toussaint-Louverture selon les dossiers conservs au Service Historique de la Dfense, Chteau de Vincennes", "Le portrait du juge idal selon Nol du Fail dans les Contes et Discours d'Eutrapel", The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution, Toussaint L'Ouverture: A Biography and Autobiography by J. R. Beard, 1863. On 31 August, they signed a secret treaty that lifted the British blockade on Saint-Domingue in exchange for a promise that Louverture would not attempt to cause unrest in British colonies in the West Indies. [41] Initially, this failed, perhaps because Louverture and the other leaders knew that Sonthonax was exceeding his authority. He now controlled the entire island. The two countries entered into the so-called "Quasi"-War, but trade between Saint-Domingue and the United States was desirable to both Louverture and the United States. Christophes response was similarly indignant. Officially as ruler of Saint-Domingue, he discouraged its practice and eventually persecuted its followers. Either way, Louverture had a letter, in which Brunet described himself as a "sincere friend", to take with him to France. With Hdouville gone, Louverture sent diplomat Joseph Bunel, a grand blanc former planter married to a Black Haitian wife, to negotiate with the administration of John Adams. I could not tell him where they are. Toussaint initially joins the Spanish forces on Hispaniola and demonstrates extraordinary military ability. In May, Port-au-Prince was returned to French rule in an atmosphere of order and celebration. [59] By now his officers included men who were to remain important throughout the revolution: his brother Paul, his nephew Mose, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and Henri Christophe. Close to the end of the decade, Toussaint had become partnered with an enslaved woman named Suzanne Simon-Baptiste, who had at least one child, Placide, from a previous relationship. Toussaint then rejoined the French forces, beat back the Spanish and began his sustained campaign against the British, who had their own designs on Saint-Domingue. Toussaint's father received the name Hyppolite upon his baptism on Saint-Domingue as Latin and Greek names were the most fashionable for slaves at this time, followed by French, and Biblical Christian names.[4]. Copyright 2023 History Today Ltd. Company no. [142] Years afterward, the French government ceremoniously presented a shovelful of soil from the grounds of Fort de Joux to the Haitian government as a symbolic transfer of Louverture's remains. Oruno D. Lara, Toussaint Louverture Franois Dominique Toussaint dit 17431803, "History of The Haitian Flag of Independence", "Toussaint Louverture, In the Name of Dignity. he has published over ten historically accurate novels and scholarly articles on the . General Henri Christophe, commander over the city, took it upon himself to deny entry to the French. Sonthonax promoted Louverture to general and arranged for his sons, Placide and Isaac, who were eleven and fourteen respectively to attend a school in mainland France for the children of colonial officials . [12] In spite or perhaps because of this protection, Louverture went on to engage in other fights. By May he had officially retired from the French army and had gone home to his family in Ennery. It was not until 18 May that Louverture would claim responsibility for the attack, when he was fighting under the banner of the French. The official report of Louvertures death, recorded in the registry of the Justice of the Peace of the canton of Pontarlier near the border with Switzerland, confirmed that he died from a combination of pneumonia and a stroke. 25. As the island's enslaved workers . Black leaders Jean-Franois and Biassou continued to fight against Louverture until November, when they left for Spain and Florida, respectively. ", 2009. 15 Battalion. This allowed the siblings to work in the manor house and stables, away from the grueling physical labor and deadly corporal punishment meted out in the sugar cane fields. ", 2012. "Black Talleyrand: Toussaint L'Ouvertures Secret Diplomacy with England and the United States. [87] Nearing the end of the revolution Louverture grew substantially wealthy; owning numerous slaves at Ennery, obtaining thirty-one properties, and earning almost 300,000 colonial livre per year from these properties. In an attempt to protect his foster mother, Pelage, Louverture bought a young 22-year-old female slave and traded her to the Brdas to prevent Pelage from being sold to a new owner. Toussaint Louverture: who was the man who led the revolution? [47] Louverture is suspected to have been behind this attack, although was not present. At this time the republicans were yet to make any formal offer to the slaves in arms and conditions for the blacks under the Spanish looked better than that of the French. [119], Louverture charged Colonel Charles Humbert Marie Vincent, who personally opposed the drafted constitution, with the task of delivering it to Napoleon. The original names of Toussaint's parents are unknown as French colonial law mandated that slaves brought to their colonies be made into Catholics, stripped of their African names, and be given more European names in order to assimilate them into the French plantation system. Louverture is now known as the "Father of Haiti". [30] He gained a reputation for his discipline, training his men in guerrilla tactics and "the European style of war". He was a devout Catholic who became a freeman before the revolution and, once freed, identified as a Frenchman for the greater part of his life. [127] The biggest impediment to this plan proved to be difficulty in internal communications. Toussaint Louverture (b. c . On 7 June 1802, Louverture and his whole family including his 105-year-old godfather were forced onto a ship calledLe Hros and deported to France. After learning that the French had been engaged in attacks against Louvertures troops elsewhere on the island, Christophe ordered his men to set fire to Le Cap. He emancipated the slaves and negotiated for the French colony on Hispaniola . Toussaint was aware of his regiments lack of training, but he was also aware of Frances desperate position in the face of Spanish and British hostility. As the rebellion grew to a full-scale insurrection, Hdouville prepared to leave the island, while Louverture and Dessalines threatened to arrest him as a troublemaker. A Look at the Trajectory of the Precursor of Independence of Haiti", Toussaint L'Ouverture: A Biography and Autobiography, "An eighteenth-century plan to invade Jamaica; Isaac Yeshurun Sasportas French patriot or Jewish radical idealist? This ensured him a loyal base of allies who did his bidding at regional and international levels. Adams as a New Englander who was openly hostile to slavery was much more sympathetic to the Haitian cause than the Washington administration before and Jefferson after, both of whom came from Southern slaving owning planter backgrounds. As a general, Toussaint led his forces to victory over the planter classand thousands of invading French troops. Despite his disapproval, Vincent attempted to submit the constitution to Napoleon but was briefly exiled to the Mediterranean island of Elba for his pains. [35] From being willing to bargain for better conditions of slavery late in 1791, he had become committed to its complete abolition. In Africa, Hyppolite and his first wife, Catherine, were forced into slavery due to a series of imperialist wars of expansion by the Kingdom of Dahomey into the Allada territory. [102], After Rigaud sent troops to seize the border towns of Petit-Goave and Grand-Goave in June 1799, Louverture persuaded Roume to declare Rigaud a traitor and attacked the southern state. By spring, French newspapers were regularly printing articles defaming Louverture: one declared that the cruelty and barbarity of Toussaint are without example, another that he was having the entire white population of the colonys major cities slaughtered, despite the fact that Louverture had helped his former masters escape to safety. "He changed the New World.". Its sugar, coffee, indigo and cotton plantations minted money, fueled by a vast enslaved labor force. [125] In late January 1802, while Leclerc sought permission to land at Cap-Franais and Christophe held him off, the Vicomte de Rochambeau suddenly attacked Fort-Libert, effectively quashing the diplomatic option. As well as presenting him as a chaste and hard working African house servant, a noble defender of the weak, and an avid reader of the Classics, the German work was the first to claim royal ancestry for Toussaint and is the only one . [123] Given the fact that France had signed a temporary truce with Great Britain in the Treaty of Amiens, Napoleon was able to plan this operation without the risk of his ships being intercepted by the Royal Navy. Louverture would pay dearly for this opposition to Leclerc, both personally and politically. [note 1] In the later twentieth century, discovery of a personal marriage certificate and baptismal record dated between 1776 and 1777 documented that Louverture was a freeman, meaning that he had been manumitted sometime between 1772 and 1776, the time de Libertat had become overseer. [129] When these talks broke down, months of inconclusive fighting followed. But my colour, my colour, has it ever prevented me from serving my Country with diligence and devotion?: Arbitrarily arrested without anyone explaining or telling me why, all of my assets seized, my entire family ravished, my papers confiscated and kept from me, shipped out and sent over here, nude like an earthworm, with the most atrocious of calumnies having been spread about me, is that not to cut a persons legs and then order him to walk? [4], After defeating forces led by Andre Rigaud in the War of the Knives, Louverture consolidated his power by decreeing a new constitution for the colony in 1801. It was completed in May and Louverture signed it in July 1801. Having been free for some 15 years, he farmed his own plot of land in the north of the island, while continuing to oversee his former owners plantation. [94] Hdouville sailed for France in October 1798, nominally transferring his authority to Rigaud. The Minister of the Marine had published a letter about ongoing affairs in Saint-Domingue in the Moniteur on 25 April, in which he made no mention of the fate of the revolutionary leader who had recently died in French captivity. Boukman then reportedly delivered an exhortation to war in Haitian creole: The god of the white man calls him to commit crimes; our god asks only good works of us. Toussaint L'Ouverture read Abb Raynal and believed that he was the courageous chief. [43] For months, Louverture had been in diplomatic contact with the French general tienne Maynaud de Bizefranc de Laveaux. [93], As Louverture's relationship with Hdouville reached the breaking point, an uprising began among the troops of his adopted nephew, Hyacinthe Mose. A formidable military leader, he turned the colony into a country governed by former black slaves as a nominal French protectorate and made himself ruler of the entire . During this time Louverture would go on to buy several slaves. It would be tempting to end with the ensuing victories of the Haitian Revolution that led to the creation of the first slavery-free nation in the Americas; or to call upon the famously apocryphal phrase that Louverture is said to have uttered while boarding the ship to his captivity: In overthrowing me, you have done no more than cut down the trunk of the tree of liberty in Saint-Domingue, it will spring back from the roots, for they are numerous and deep. However, we must not obscure the truth that it was Louvertures terrible fate that taught the other revolutionary leaders there could no longer be meaningful negotiations for peace. Furthermore, Saint-Domingues sustained slave rebellion had put Frances wealthiest colony in the Americas at risk of falling under the control of its enemies, England and Spain. 17 Republic born. The Haitian Revolution (1791 - 1804) created the only nation ever to be formed by a slave revolt. His medical knowledge is attributed to a familiarity with the folk medicine of the African plantation slaves and Creole communities, as well as more formal techniques found in the hospitals founded by the Jesuits and the free people of color. Hoping to create a rivalry that would diminish Louverture's power, Hdouville displayed a strong preference for Rigaud, and an aversion to Louverture. [22] Legal documents signed on Louverture's behalf between 17781781 suggest that he could not yet write at that time. The name Louverture comes from the French word for "opening," most likely referring to his ability as a military commander to find openings in an enemy's defenses. James writes that Toussaint saw himself in the avenger role described by Enlightenment thinker Abb Raynal: as a figure who rises up to eradicate human bondage. The struggle highlighted the brutality of slavery and the universal desire and . Nonetheless, Toussaint continued to dangle the prospect of British influence in Saint-Domingue as a check against French complacency and to spur trade with Britains neighboring colony of Jamaica. [122] Napoleon eventually decided to send an expedition of 20,000 men to Saint-Domingue to restore French authority, and possibly, to restore slavery as well. Toussaint now went from being a slave of the Brda plantation to becoming a member of the greater community of the gens de couleur libres (free people of color). Several aspects of the constitution were damaging to France: the absence of provision for French government officials, the lack of trade advantages, and Louverture's breach of protocol in publishing the constitution before submitting it to the French government. He was deported to France and jailed at the Fort de Joux. While it was his radical deputy, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who would outlast the French assault and declare Haitis independence in 1804, it is Toussaints leadership that laid the groundwork for that extraordinary achievement. [19][106], In November 1799, during the civil war, Napoleon Bonaparte gained power in France and passed a new constitution declaring that the colonies would be subject to special laws. Toussaint would grow closer to the Capuchin Order that succeeded them in 1768, especially as they did not own plantations like the Jesuits. [117] Identifying as a loyal Christian Frenchman, Louverture was not willing to compromise Catholicism for Vodou, the dominant faith among former slaves. Worried about the economy, which had stalled, he restored the plantation system using paid labor; negotiated trade agreements with the United Kingdom and the United States and maintained a large and well-trained army. The previous October, Louverture asked Baille to tell the government that his cell, which was often freezing, was too cold. Jean-Jacques Dessalines, one of l'Overture's generals and himself a former slave, led the revolutionaries at the Battle of Vertieres on November 18, 1803 where the . So when it suited his needs, he joined forces with Frances enemies. The French had betrayed him. Although Toussaint died in a French jail a year before Saint-Domingue gained full independence (and rechristened itself as Haiti) in 1804, his myriad efforts set the stage for the establishment of the second sovereign nation in the western hemisphere after Americaand the worlds first sovereign Black state. Louvertures self-proclaimed heroism is illustrated by the following statement: Ive been fighting for a long time, and if I must continue, I can. Toussaint Louverture is thought to have been born enslaved around 1739-1746 on the plantation of Brda at Haut de Cap on the northern coast of Saint-Domingue, present day Haiti. In spite of this relative privilege, there is evidence that even in his youth Louverture's pride pushed him to engage in fights with members of the Petits-blancs (white commoner) community, who worked on the plantation as hired help. Louverture gradually established control over the whole island and used his political and military influence to gain dominance over his rivals. During this time, his competition with the other rebel leaders was growing, and the Spanish had started to look with disfavor on his near-autonomous control of a large and strategically important region. Toussaint Louverture led a successful slave revolt and emancipated the slaves in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti). Toussaint Louverture, Louverture also spelled L'Ouverture, original name (until c. 1793) Franois Dominique Toussaint, (born c. 1743, Brda, near Cap-Franais, Saint-Domingue [Haiti]died April 7, 1803, Fort-de-Joux, France), leader of the Haitian independence movement during the French Revolution (1787-99). [62], Throughout 1795 and 1796, Louverture was also concerned with re-establishing agriculture and exports, and keeping the peace in areas under his control. Instead, Josphine counselled her husband to keep Toussaint Louverture there. [citation needed], John Brown claimed influence by Louverture in his plans to invade Harpers Ferry. Haiti won independence, and the Black people who had been enslaved . Charles Forsdick and Christian Hgsbjerg. In spite of attempts by many powerful figures in France to cover up the seriousness of their crime against the man they had held prisoner without any trial or formal charges having been filed against him, Louvertures death was reported across the Atlantic world. 10 Toussaint. Eventually, wielding knowledge of African and Creole medicinal techniques, he entered the war as a physician. Toussaint L'Ouverture was a former slave who rose to become the leader of the only successful slave revolt in modern history known as the Haitian Revolution.. Who started the Haitian Revolution? This was a diverse group of Affranchis (freed slaves), free blacks of full or majority African ancestry, and Mulattos (mixed-race peoples), which included the children of French planters and their African slaves as well as distinct multiracial families who had multi-generational mixed ancestries from the varying different populations on the island.
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