xxxv i TOUSSAINT L 'OUVERTURE

James, C. L. R., Tlie Black Jacobins: Toussaiiit L'Ouvcrtuvc and the SanDomingo Revolution (Vintage, 1989).

Laurent, Gerard M., Toussaint Lonvertnrc a travcrs sa corrcspotidance(1794-1798) (Industrias Graficas Espana, 1953).

Nesbitt, Nick, Universal Eniancipation: The Haitian Revolution and theRadical Etiliglitenment (University' of Virginia Press, 2()()<S).

Pluchon, Pierre, Toussaint Loiivertiire: Un revolutionnairc noir d'AncicnRegime (Fayard, 1989).

Popkin, Jeremy, Facifig Racial Revolution: Eyewitness Accounts of theHaitian Insurrection (University of Chicago Press, 2()()8).

Scott, David, Conscripts of Modernity: The Tragedy of Colonial Etdiglit-enment (Duke University Press, 2004).

Trouillot, Michel-Rolph, Silencing the Past: Pouter and the Production ofHistory (Beacon, 1995).

Haiti: State Against Nation: The Origins and Legacy of Duvalier-ism (Monthly Review Press, 1990).

C H R O N O L O G Y

1739—1-6(?) Toussaint Breda, grandson of the Arada Africanking Gaou-Guinou, born on the Habitation Bredaplantation in the French sugar colony of St-noniingiie. Receives a rudimentary education,eventually becoming an expert horse trainer,veterinarian, healer, steward's coachman, andprincipal manager of the livestock on theplanta t ion.

1776 Toussaint Breda gi-anted freedom from slaveiy.Toussaint remains on the Habitation Birda under thebeneficent direction of his fomier owner, Bayon deLibertat, while purchasing plantations and at leastthirteen slaves of his own.

1782 Toussaint niames Suzanne Simon Baptiste.1 7 9 115 May: French Assembly grants full political rights to mixed

r a c e c i t i z e n s .

August: Slave leaden meet in Bois Caiinan to plan rebellion.Night of August 22-23, Haitian Revolution beginsunder leadei-s Boukman and Jeannot.

2 4

September: Repeal of May 15 law, driving mixed-race citizensto join slave rebellion.

x x x v i i i T O U S S A I N T L ' O U V E R T U R I

Toussaint plays a fundamental, behind-the-scenes rolein fomenting and radicalizing the St-Domingue slaver e b e l l i o n .

Assembly again grants pohtical rights to mixed-raceand f ree b lack c i t i zens o f S t -Domineue .

France declares war against Spain.Toussaint leads rebels fighting the French,repeatedly defeating French forces numerically farsuperior to his own 600 men. Toussaint controlsNortheast St-Domingue, from Mamielade toD o n d o n .

Commissioner Sonthonax unilaterally abolishesslavery, immediately and universally, in St-Domingue. Toussaint Breda simultaneously issues acall to arms for Liberty and Equality', adopting thename Toussaint L Ouverture and taHng his place atthe forefront of the movement to overthrow slaveiyin St-Domingue. Toussaint will continue to fight onthe side of the Spanish until spring 1794, by whichtime he is certain the French Assembly has formallyabolished slavery.

Toussaint ambushed by rival rebels Jean-Frangoisand/or Biassou; he narrowly escapes, but his brotherPierre is kill < -T int joins the French republican forces. Under

n e r a l 4 , 0 0 0 t r o o p s q u i c k l ygt pomingue s Western Belt from GonaiVes

'trDondon, defeating all Spanish troops in theregion.Abolition of slavery by the French Convention (16Pluviose/February 4) officially decreed in St-

defeats the rebel leader Jean-Fran<;ois, stills id ing Width the Spanish.

C H R O N O L O G Y x x x i x

September- O c t o b e r :

1 7 9 4 - 9 8

1795

July:

August:

O c t o b e r :

N o v e m b e r :

1 7 9 6

M a r c h :

Apri l :

July:

O c t o b e r -

7 9 7

Toussaint unsuccessfully fights troops of BritishLieutenant Colonel Brisbane for control of St Marc

Toussaint maintains a voluminous correspondencewith his principal protector and benefactor, GeneralE t ienne Laveaux .

Treaty^ of Basel ends war between France and Spain,Spain ceding eastem Hispaniola (present-day DominicanRepublic) to France. Toussaint promoted to brigadiergeneral.

Themiidorian Constitution reaffimis abolition ofslaveiy.

Napoleon Bonaparte made Commander-in-Chief ofFrench Army.

Jean-Francois and Biassou abandon Hispaniola.

Amid throwing conflict between mixed-race andblack troops, Laveaux is captured at Cap Framais bycolored oftkials, then freed by troops underToussaint's delegate PieiTe Miche .Laveaux proclaims Toussaint the 'black Spartacus, thenegro [who] Raynal predicted would avenge theoutrages done to Ifrs race'. Tottssaint is promoted tolieutenant governor.Commissioner Sonthonax promotes Toussaint togeneral of division. Toussaint is now the mostpowerful commander in St-Dommgue, controllingthe entire Northern Department of the colony.At Toussaint's insistence, Laveaux returns to Franceas colonial representative to defen t cause ofemancipation in an increasingly reactionary politicalatmosphere.

Toussaint acts to instate paid plantation labour,encounterine widespread resistance from fomier

x l T O U S S A I N T L ' O U V E R T U R E

slaves. Conflict develops between Toiissaint andS o n t h o n a x o v e r To u s s a i n t ' s d e s i r e t o r e s t o r e

property to white plantation ownei-s who condemnslavery.L'Ouverture recaptures Mirebelais from the British. Aroyalist majority is elected to the National Assembly.Representative Vincent Marie Vaublanc defends theretum of the Ancien Regime order, and, implicitly, ofslavery.L'Ouverture promoted by Sonthonax to commanderin chief of French amiy in St-Domingue.

Toussaint forces Sonthonax to leave St-Domingueand re tum to France .

Toussaint negotiates with General Thomas Maitlandfor British withdrawal from St-Domingue. Toussainttakes over Por t -au -Pr ince .

Toussaint expels French Commissioner Hedouvillefrom the colony. Fledouville transfers his authority tothe mixed-race general Rigaud, escalating a tensestandoff with Toussaint. Toussaint succeskully sends atrade mission to the United States, stokinu suspicionsthat he seeks independence for the colony. St-Domingue is effectively under British and Americannaval protection from French warships.Toussaint orders all non-enlisted adult blacks toretum to plantations for obligatory wage labour.

Toussaint and Ri aud enter into open conflict ('Warof the Knives). Toussaint narrowly escapes multipleassassination attempts by Rigaud's followers.Siege of Jacmel by Dessalines. French Directorycollapses, Bonapaite takes dictatorial power as FirstConsul in France. New French c o n s t i t u t i o n d e c l a r e s

the colonies to be ruled by 'special laws', implying. u . o f s l a v e r y.

C H R O N O L O G Y x l i

1 8 0 0

All mist: Rigaiid, defeated by L'Oiiverture, flees to France.L'Oiiverture decrees military-enforced obligator)'labour policy. L'Ouveitiire's adoptive nephew Moysecalls for smallholding land refomi, supporting blacksin a revolt against forced plantation labour andreturning white landowners, claiming the life ofBayon de Libertat. Toussaint aiTests and executesM o v s e .

Toussaint invades and takes control of Spanish SantoDomingo. He rules the island of Hispaniolaunopposed. St-Domingue begins to return toeconomic prosperit)^

Toussaint unilaterally promulgates a constitution forSt-Domingue, codif dng the universal abolition ofslaveiy and prohibiting all racial discrimination, whilesimultaneously naming himself dictatorial governorfor l i fe .

Both the United States and Britain infonn Francethat they are opposed to the independence ot St-Honnngue and will not interfere with an invasion todepose L'Ouverture.

French fleet carr>'ing 21,000 troops led by Einnia„uelLeclerc anaves m St-Doiningue. On Toussaint sorder, Heniy Chnstophe bums the capital c,t>. ofCap Framjais to the ground.

Fighting inflicts heavy casualties on both sides.Heniy Christophe joins Leclerc's forces with some1,200 troops.Toussaint offers to stiiTender to Leclerc. Napoleonpromulgates the reintroduction of slcwei7 in theF r e n c h

x l i i T O U S S A I N T L ' O U V E R T U R E

News arrives in St-Domingue of the reintroductionof slavery in Guadeloupe; a massive uprising followsagainst the French.Toussaint is arrested by Leclerc in Gonaives anddeported to Fort de Joux, France.General Caferelli interrogates Toussaint in his prisoncell, hoping to gain information on riches Toussainthad putatively hidden in St-Domingue.Leclerc dies of yellow fever, joining the 50,000French troops lost since February - out of a total ofsome 80,000 — to fighring and disease in St-Domingue.

Toussaint weakens and grows ill in his prison cell.Toussaint L'Ouverture dies in prison in France froma respiratory infection, malnutrition, and exposure tot h e e l e m e n t s .

Britain declares war on France; the French positionin St-Domingue becomes untenable.British forces blocade St-Domingue.

N O T E O N T H E T E X T S

The correspondence of Toussaint L Ouverture is vast, andremains to a great degree unpublished, dispersed across the globein various archives and private collections, awaiting a criticaledition (see David Geggus, Haitian Revolutionary Studies, IndianaUniversity Press, 2002). The small selection of letters the editorsof this volume have chosen seeks to present to the Anglophonereader a representative sample of L'Ouveiture's writings.

These letters testify to the leadership of Toussaint L Ouveiturein the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), as well as escribing oneof the most astounding instances of political su jeedvadon mhuman history. Toussaint L'Ouverture started i e as a slave, andafter 1776 became a free and slave-owning black In a few shortyears after 1789, however, he reinvented hinise to ecoine theworld-famous figure who transfonned what ha egun as onemore colonial revolt into a world-historical sequence that initiatedglobal decolonization and the destruction of plaia^^^ slavery, gy1801 he had led St-Domingue to de facto independence, simultaneously inventing the concept of associated state ood.

The editors have chosen this selection ofwrituus with an eye toconveying Toussaint's rhetorical, theoretical an military genius.They bear witness to the manner in which he focused the HaitianRevolution around a single, non-negotiable struggle; the universal.