Jeannot , was a leader of the 1791 slave rising that began the Haitian Revolution . With Biassou and Jean François , he was prophesied by Dutty Boukman to lead the revolution, and fought with the Spanish royalists against the French Revolutionary authorities in colonial Haiti .
122-533: He launched vicious attacks on whites and mulattoes, devising gruesome methods of putting them to death. Toussaint Louverture was sickened by his attitudes and actions. (Beard, p. 55) "Small, thin man with a forbidding manner and a veiled crafty face. He was utterly remorseless... even towards his own kind. ... He would stop at nothing to gain his own ends, he was daring, seizing quickly on chances, quick-witted and capable of total hypocrisy. He feared no one and nothing; unfortunately he found inspiration in cruelty,
244-618: 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 slave-owning planter backgrounds. The terms of the treaty were similar to those already established with the British, but Louverture continually rebuffed suggestions from either power that he should declare independence. As long as France maintained
366-607: A Sephardic Jewish merchant from Saint-Dominigue, attempted to travel to the British colony of Jamaica to foment a slave rebellion there, Louverture initially supported him; however, as he decided he needed Britain's support, Louverture subsequently leaked Sasportas' intentions to the British authorities in Jamaica, who arrested and hung him in Kingston on December 23, 1799. Committee of Public Safety The Committee of Public Safety (French: Comité de salut public )
488-628: A belief in democracy and civilian government was heralded as the new era of French civilization. 1793 would bring a new republican constitution, drafted by the National Assembly. The French Constitution of 1793 and its subsequent government would bring sweeping reforms to French politics and the French social order. Major reforms included comprehensive education, the recognition of rights for illegitimate children and improved rights for married women. The French Constitution of 1793 outlined
610-711: A degree of theological education from the Jesuit and Capuchin missionaries through his church attendance and devout Catholicism. 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. Legal documents signed on Louverture's behalf between 1778 and 1781 suggest that he could not yet write at that time. Throughout his military and political career during
732-488: A free man of color, after overthrowing French General Étienne Laveaux. In 1796 Villate drummed up popular support by accusing the French authorities of plotting a return to slavery. On 20 March, he succeeded in capturing the French Governor Laveaux, and appointed himself Governor. Louverture's troops soon arrived at Cap-Français to rescue the captured governor and to drive Villatte out of town. Louverture
854-682: A general emancipation, but an offer of freedom to male slaves who agreed to fight for them) Louverture stated that "the blacks wanted to serve under a king and the Spanish king offered his protection." On 29 August 1793, he made his famous declaration of Camp Turel to the black population of St. Domingue: Brothers and friends, I am Toussaint Louverture; perhaps my name has made itself known to you. I have undertaken vengeance. I want Liberty and Equality to reign in St. Domingue. I am working to make that happen. Unite yourselves to us, brothers and fight with us for
976-573: A landing of French troops if necessary. 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. The resulting civil war, known as the War of Knives , lasted more than a year, with the defeated Rigaud fleeing to Guadeloupe , then France, in August 1800. Louverture delegated most of
1098-594: A lieutenant to Georges Biassou , an early leader of the 1791 War for Freedom in Saint-Domingue. Initially allied with the Spaniards of neighboring Santo Domingo , Louverture switched his allegiance to the French when the new Republican government abolished slavery . Louverture gradually established control over the whole island and used his political and military influence to gain dominance over his rivals. Throughout his years in power, he worked to balance
1220-427: A massacre of the whites of the island. The accusation played on Sonthonax's political radicalism and known hatred of the aristocratic grands blancs , but historians have varied as to how credible they consider it. On reaching France, Sonthonax countered by accusing Louverture of royalist, counter-revolutionary, and pro-independence tendencies. Louverture knew that he had asserted his authority to such an extent that
1342-429: A move that drew criticism from abolitionists William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson . On the other hand, Louverture was able to pool his 4,000 men with Laveaux's troops in joint actions. By now his officers included men who were to remain important throughout the revolution: his brother Paul, his nephew Moïse Hyacinthe , Jean-Jacques Dessalines , and Henri Christophe . Before long, Louverture had put an end to
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#17327914532711464-429: A power-seeker and sincere abolitionist" who was working with Laveaux since January 1794 and switched sides on 6 May. Louverture claimed to have switched sides after emancipation was proclaimed and the commissioners Sonthonax and Polverel had returned to France in June 1794. However, a letter from Toussaint to General Laveaux confirms that he was already fighting officially on the behalf of the French by 18 May 1794. In
1586-487: A powerful defensive position. Louverture was determined to proceed anyway and coerced Roume into supplying the necessary permission. At the same time, in order to improve his political relationships with other European powers, Louverture tooks steps to stabilize the political landscape of the Caribbean, which included limiting his anti-slavery sentiments in the interest of realpolitik . When Isaac Yeshurun Sasportas,
1708-650: A proposal by Bertrand Barère on 18 March the committee was created on 6 April 1793. Closely associated with the leadership of Danton, it was initially known as the Danton Committee. Danton steered the Committee through the 31 May and 2 June 1793 journées that saw the violent expulsion of the Girondins and through the intensifying war in the Vendée. When the committee was recomposed on 10 July 1793, Danton
1830-452: A revolutionary leader, Louverture displayed military and political acumen that helped transform the fledgling slave rebellion into a revolutionary movement . Along with Jean-Jacques Dessalines , Louverture is now known as one of the "Fathers of Haiti". Toussaint Louverture was born as a slave in the French colony of Saint-Domingue , now known as Haiti . He was a devout Catholic, and was manumitted as an affranchi (ex-slave) before
1952-541: A sadist without the refinements that so-called civilization brings." (Parkinson, p. 40) "He hanged those he had captured by hooks stuck under their chins. He himself put out their eyes with red-hot pincers. He cut the throat of a prisoner and lapped at the blood as it flowed, encouraging those around him to join him: "Ah, my friends, how good, how sweet is the blood of the whites. Drink it deep and swear revenge against our oppressors, never peace, never surrender, I swear by God." (Parkinson, p. 43-4). Jeannot's brutality
2074-461: A school in mainland France for the children of colonial officials . This was done to provide them with a formal education in the French language and culture, one that Louverture highly desired for his children, but to also use them as political hostages against Louverture should he act against the will of the central French authority in Paris. In spite of this Placide and Isaac ran away enough times from
2196-481: A series of mistresses. In 1785, Louverture's eldest child, the 24-year-old Toussaint Jr., died from a fever and the family organized a formal Catholic funeral for him. This was officiated by a local priest as a favor for the devout Louverture. Gabrielle-Toussaint disappeared from the historical record at this time and is presumed to have also died, possibly from the same illness that took Toussaint Jr. Not all of Louverture's children can be identified with certainty, but
2318-621: A speech to the Jacobin Club that night, he attacked Collot d'Herbois and Billaud-Varenne, who had refused to allow the printing and distribution of his speech to the convention. On the following day, 27 July 1794 ( 9 Thermidor according to the Republican calendar ), Saint-Just began to speak before the Convention. However, he was almost immediately interrupted by Tallien and by Billaud-Varenne, who accused him of intending to "murder
2440-500: A talent for handling the horses and oxen on the plantation. 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. 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
2562-517: A young 22-year-old female slave and traded her to the Brédas to prevent Pelage from being sold to a new owner. By the start of the revolution, Louverture began to accumulate a moderate fortune and was able to buy a small plot of land adjacent to the Bréda property to build a house for his family. He was nearly 48 years old at this time. Louverture gained some education from his godfather Pierre-Baptiste on
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#17327914532712684-755: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Toussaint Louverture François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture ( French: [fʁɑ̃swa dɔminik tusɛ̃ luvɛʁtyʁ] , English: / ˌ l uː v ər ˈ tj ʊər / ) also known as Toussaint L'Ouverture or Toussaint Bréda (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 and allied with Spanish forces against Saint-Domingue Royalists , then joined with Republican France , becoming Governor-General-for-life of Saint-Domingue , and lastly fought against Bonaparte 's republican troops. As
2806-590: The levée en masse passed on 23 August 1793, the Law of Suspects passed on 17 September 1793 and the Law of the General Maximum passed on 29 September 1793. The broad and centralized powers of the committee were codified by the Law of 14 Frimaire (also known as the Law of Revolutionary Government) on 4 December 1793. On 5 December 1793, journalist Camille Desmoulins began publishing Le Vieux Cordelier with
2928-554: The American and French governments over the issue of privateering . 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. With Hédouville 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 . Adams as
3050-592: The Catholic Church by the local Jesuit Order . Pierre-Baptiste Simon, a carpenter and gatekeeper on the Bréda plantation, is considered to have been Louverture's godfather and went on to become a parental figure to Louverture's family, along with his foster mother Pelage, after the death of Toussaint's parents. Growing up, Toussaint first learned to speak the African Fon language of the Allada slaves on
3172-706: The First Coalition and the Vendée revolt . As a wartime measure, the committee was given broad supervisory and administrative powers over the armed forces, judiciary and legislature, as well as the executive bodies and ministers of the convention. As the committee, restructured in July, raised the defense ( levée en masse ) against the monarchist coalition of European nations and counter-revolutionary forces within France, it became more and more powerful. In December 1793,
3294-494: The French National Assembly to expand voting rights and legal protections from the grands blancs to the wealthy slave-owning gens de couleur, such as themselves. Being of majority white descent and with Ogé having been educated in France, the two were incensed that their black African ancestry prevented them from having the same legal rights as their fathers, who were both grand blanc planters. Rebuffed by
3416-516: The French Revolution , identifying as a Creole for the greater part of his life. During his time as an affranchi , he became a salaried employee, an overseer of his former master's plantation, and later became a wealthy slave owner himself; Toussaint Louverture owned several coffee plantations at Petit Cormier, Grande Rivière, and Ennery. At the start of the Haitian revolution he was nearly 50 years old and began his military career as
3538-832: The Artibonite in the West in addition to capturing the port town of Gonaïves in December 1793. However, tensions had emerged between Louverture and the Spanish higher-ups. His superior with whom he enjoyed good relations, Matías de Armona, was replaced with Juan de Lleonart – who was disliked by the black auxiliaries. Lleonart failed to support Louverture in March 1794 during his feud with Biassou, who had been stealing supplies for Louverture's men and selling their families as slaves. Unlike Jean-François and Bissaou, Louverture refused to round up enslaved women and children to sell to
3660-420: The British presence, but was unable to oust them from Saint-Marc . He contained them by resorting to guerilla tactics . Throughout 1795 and 1796, Louverture was also concerned with re-establishing agriculture and exports, and keeping the peace in areas under his control. In speeches and policy he revealed his belief that the long-term freedom of the people of Saint-Domingue depended on the economic viability of
3782-544: The Bréda plantation. His extant letters demonstrate a moderate familiarity with Epictetus , the Stoic philosopher who had lived as a slave, while his public speeches showed a familiarity with Machiavelli . Some cite Enlightenment thinker Abbé Raynal , a French critic of slavery, and his publication Histoire des deux Indes predicting a slave revolt in the West Indies as a possible influence. Louverture received
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3904-636: The Committee due to illness (he all but ceased to attend meetings in June 1794) created the impression among some members that he was isolated and out of touch. Charlotte Robespierre reported in her memoirs that Robespierre had come into conflict with several of the representatives on mission due to their excessive use of violence, which likely also led to the unity of the Committee devolving. When it became suspected in mid-July 1794 that Robespierre and Saint-Just were planning to strike against their political opponents Joseph Fouché , Jean-Lambert Tallien and Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier (the latter two members of
4026-560: The Committee of General Security), the fragile truce within the government was dissolved. Saint-Just and his fellow Committee of Public Safety member Bertrand Barère attempted to keep the peace between the Committees of Public Safety and General Security. However, Robespierre delivered a speech to the National Convention on 26 July 1794 in which he emphasized the need to "purify" the Committees and "crush all factions". In
4148-400: The Convention and Committees of Public Safety and General Security. The law enumerated various forms of public enemies, required their denunciation, and severely limited the legal recourse available to those accused. The punishment for all crimes covered under this law was death; from its inception to its removal, more people were condemned to death in Paris than in the entire previous history of
4270-498: The Convention formally conferred executive power upon the committee . Among the members, the radical Montagnard Jacobin Maximilien Robespierre was one of the most well-known, though he did not have any special powers or privileges. After the arrest and execution of the rival factions of Hébertists and Dantonists , sentiment in the Convention eventually turned against Robespierre, who was executed in July 1794. In
4392-446: The Convention". Barère, Vadier and Stanislas Fréron joined the accusations against Saint-Just and Robespierre. The Convention ordered the arrest of Robespierre, his brother Augustin , and Saint-Just, along with that of their supporters, including Philippe Le Bas and Georges Couthon . A period of intense civil unrest ensued, during which the members of the Committees of Public Safety and General Security were forced to seek refuge in
4514-556: The French government might well suspect him of seeking independence. At the same time, the French Directoire government was considerably less revolutionary than it had been. Suspicions began to brew that it might reconsider the abolition of slavery. In November 1797, Louverture wrote again to the Directoire, assuring them of his loyalty, but reminding them firmly that abolition must be maintained. For months, Louverture
4636-541: The Gonaïves attack was thought to be feigned and Lleonart suspected him of treachery. Remaining distrustful of the black commander, Lleonart housed his wife and children whilst Louverture led an attack on Dondon in early May, an act which Lleonart later believed confirmed Louverture's decision to turn against the Spanish. The timing of and motivation behind Louverture's volte-face against Spain remains debated among historians. C. L. R. James claimed that upon learning of
4758-480: The Haitian Revolution. Between 1761 and 1777, Louverture met and married his first wife, Cécile, in a Catholic ceremony . The couple went on to have two sons, Toussaint Jr. and Gabrielle-Toussaint, and a daughter, Marie-Marthe. During this time, Louverture bought several slaves; although this was a means to grow a greater pool of exploitable labor, this was one of the few legal methods available to free
4880-612: The Revolutionary Tribunal. However, this statistic is accentuated by the fact that, as noted previously, all capital trials and sentences were carried out in Paris rather than being scattered across the provinces. Robespierre, a fervent supporter of the theistic Cult of the Supreme Being , found himself frequently in conflict with anti-religious Committee members Collot d'Herbois and Billaud-Varenne . Moreover, Robespierre's increasingly extensive absences from
5002-647: The Roman tyrants chronicled by Tacitus and expounding the indulgent views of the Dantonist faction. Consequently, though the Hébertists were arrested and executed in March 1794, the Committees had Desmoulins and Danton arrested as well. Hérault de Séchelles , a friend and ally of Danton, was expelled from the Committee of Public Safety, arrested and tried alongside them. On 5 April 1794, the Dantonists went to
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5124-497: The Spanish in May 1793; Louverture likely did so in early June. He had made covert overtures to General Laveaux prior but was rebuffed as Louverture's conditions for alliance were deemed unacceptable. 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. In response to the civil commissioners' radical 20 June proclamation (not
5246-455: The Spanish threat to French Saint-Domingue. In any case, the Treaty of Basel of July 1795 marked a formal end to hostilities between the two countries. Black leaders Jean-François and Biassou continued to fight against Louverture until November, when they left for Spain and Florida, respectively. At that point, most of their men joined Louverture's forces. Louverture also made inroads against
5368-536: The Spanish, Louverture ran the fortified post of La Tannerie and maintained the Cordon de l'Ouest , a line of posts between rebel and colonial territory. He gained a reputation for his discipline, training his men in guerrilla tactics and "the European style of war". Louverture emphasized brotherhood and fraternity among his troops and aimed to unify individuals of many populations. He used republican rhetoric to rally
5490-536: The Spanish. This feud also emphasized Louverture's inferior position in the trio of black generals in the minds of the Spanish ;– a check upon any ambitions for further promotion. On 29 April 1794, the Spanish garrison at Gonaïves was suddenly attacked by black troops fighting in the name of "the King of the French", who demanded that the garrison surrender. Approximately 150 men were killed and much of
5612-554: The US, who feared that the success of the revolution would inspire slave revolts across the Caribbean, the South American colonies, and the southern United States. On 30 April 1798, Louverture signed a treaty with British Army officer Thomas Maitland , exchanging the withdrawal of British troops from western Saint-Domingue in return for a general amnesty for the French counter-revolutionaries in those areas. In May, Port-au-Prince
5734-510: The Villate insurrection, France's representatives of the third commission arrived in Saint-Domingue. Among them was Sonthonax , the commissioner who had previously declared abolition of slavery on the same day as Louverture's proclamation of Camp Turel. At first the relationship between the two men was positive. Sonthonax promoted Louverture to general and arranged for his sons, Placide and Isaac, who were eleven and fourteen respectively to attend
5856-478: The abolition of slavery . For months, Louverture had been in diplomatic contact with the French general Étienne Maynaud de Bizefranc de Laveaux. 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. Louverture's auxiliary force was employed to great success, with his army responsible for half of all Spanish gains north of
5978-572: The abolition of slavery, he appeared to be content to have the colony remain French, at least in name. In 1799, the tensions between Louverture and Rigaud came to a head. Louverture accused Rigaud of trying to assassinate him to gain power over Saint-Domingue. Rigaud claimed Louverture was conspiring with the British to restore slavery. The conflict was complicated by racial overtones that escalated tensions between full blacks and mulattoes. Louverture had other political reasons for eliminating Rigaud; only by controlling every port could he hope to prevent
6100-539: The appointment of generals), the appointing of judges and juries for the Revolutionary Tribunal, the provisioning of the armies and the public, the maintenance of public order and oversight of the state bureaucracy. The committee was also responsible for interpreting and applying the decrees of the National Convention and thus for implementing some of the most stringent policies of the Terror—for instance,
6222-401: The approval of Robespierre and the Committee . This newspaper was initially aimed against the ultrarevolutionary Hébertist faction, whose extremist demands, anti-religious fervor and propensity for sudden insurrections troubled the committee. However, Desmoulins quickly turned his pen against the Committee of Public Safety and the Committee of General Security, comparing their reign to that of
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#17327914532716344-527: The assembly they returned to the colony where Ogé met up with Jean-Baptiste Chavannes , a wealthy mixed-race veteran of the American Revolution and an abolitionist. Here the two organized a small scale revolt in 1790 composed of a few hundred gens de couleur, who engaged in several battles against the colonial militias on the island. However, after the movement failed to gain traction Ogé and Chavannes were quickly captured and publicly broken on
6466-502: The atmosphere for a radicalized governing authority to take power. Members of the French common classes such as the Sans-Culottes turned to radicalism and inspired militant activism among the French populace. On 5 April 1793, the French military commander and former minister of war General Charles François Dumouriez defected to Austria following the publication of an incendiary letter in which he threatened to march his army on
6588-485: The black and mixed-race population made up of slave foremen, Creoles , and freed slaves gathered in secret at a plantation in Morne-Rouge in the north of Saint-Domingue to plan their revolt. Here prominent early figures of the revolution such as Dutty François Boukman , Jean-François Papillon , Georges Biassou, Jeannot Bullet , and Toussaint gathered to nominate a single leader to guide the revolt. Toussaint, wary of
6710-557: The black and mulatto population of Saint-Domingue became inspired by a multitude of factors that converged on the island in the late 1780s and early 1790s leading them to organize a series of rebellions against the central white colonial assembly in Le Cap . In 1789 two mix-race Creole merchants, Vincent Ogé and Julien Raimond , happened to be in France during the early stages of the French Revolution. Here they began lobbying
6832-420: The campaign to his lieutenant, Jean-Jacques Dessalines , who became infamous, during and after the war, for massacring mulatto captives and civilians. The number of deaths is contested: the contemporary French general François Joseph Pamphile de Lacroix suggested 10,000 deaths, while the 20th-century Trinidadian historian C. L. R. James claimed there were only a few hundred deaths. In November 1799, during
6954-458: The city of Paris if the National Convention did not accede to his leadership. News of his defection caused alarm in Paris, where imminent defeat by the Austrians and their allies was feared. A widespread belief held that revolutionary France was in immediate peril, threatened not only by foreign armies and by recent revolts in the Vendée , but also by foreign agents who plotted the destruction of
7076-459: The civil war, Napoleon Bonaparte gained power in France and passed a new constitution declaring that French colonies would be subject to special laws. Although many Black people in the colonies suspected this meant the re-introduction of slavery, Napoleon began by confirming Louverture's position and promising to maintain existing anti-slavery laws. But he also forbade Louverture to invade Spanish Santo Domingo, an action that would put Louverture in
7198-456: The colony. He was held in general respect, and resorted to a mixture of diplomacy and force to return the field hands to the plantations as emancipated and paid workers. Workers regularly staged small rebellions, protesting poor working conditions, their lack of real freedom, or their fear of a return to slavery. They wanted to establish their own small holdings and work for themselves, rather than on plantations. Another of Louverture's concerns
7320-450: The colony. The planters political and familial connections to Metropolitan France could also foster better diplomatic and economic ties to Europe. In summer 1797, Louverture authorized the return of Bayon de Libertat, the former overseer of the Bréda plantation, with whom he had shared a close relationship with ever since he was enslaved. Sonthonax wrote to Louverture threatening him with prosecution and ordering him to get de Libertat off
7442-502: The committee's political power, discord was growing within the revolutionary government. Members of the Committee of General Security resented the aggressive behavior of the Committee of Public Safety and particularly the encroachment of the General Police Bureau upon their own brief. Arguments within the Committee of Public Safety itself had grown so violent that it relocated its meetings to a more private room to preserve
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#17327914532717564-598: The convention. The Robespierre brothers, Saint-Just, Le Bas and Couthon ensconced themselves in the Hôtel de Ville , attempting to incite an insurrection. Ultimately, faced with defeat and arrest, Le Bas committed suicide, while Saint-Just, Couthon, and Maximilien and Augustin Robespierre were arrested and guillotined on 28 July 1794. The ensuing period of upheaval, dubbed the Thermidorian Reaction , saw
7686-552: The couple and sold them to the crew of the French slave ship Hermione , which then sailed to the French West Indies . The original names of Toussaint's parents are unknown, since the Code Noir 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. Toussaint's father received
7808-484: The daily functions of the plantation. He took up his old responsibilities of looking after the livestock and care of the horses. By 1789, his responsibilities expanded to include acting as a muleteer , master miller, and possibly a slave-driver, charged with organizing the workforce. During this time the Bréda family attempted to divide the plantation and the slaves on it among a new series of four heirs. In an attempt to protect his foster mother, Pelage, Louverture bought
7930-472: The dangers of taking on such a public role, especially after hearing about what happened to Ogé and Chavannes, went on to nominate Georges Biassou as leader. He would later join his forces as a secretary and lieutenant, and be in command of a small detachment of soldiers. During this time Toussaint took up the name of Monsieur Toussaint, a title that was once been reserved for the white population of Saint-Domingue. Surviving documents show him participating in
8052-645: The economy and security of Saint-Domingue. 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. Louverture seized power in Saint-Domingue, established his own system of government, and promulgated his own colonial constitution in 1801 that named him as Governor-General for Life, which challenged Napoleon Bonaparte's authority. In 1802, he
8174-511: The eldest son of Hyppolite, an Allada slave from the slave coast of West Africa , and his second wife Pauline, a slave from the Aja ethnic group, and given the name Toussaint at birth. Louverture's son Issac would later name his great-grandfather, Hyppolite's father, as Gaou Guinou and a son of the King of Allada , although there is little extant evidence of this. The name Gaou possibly originated in
8296-419: The emancipation decree in May 1794, Louverture decided to join the French in June. It is argued by Beaubrun Ardouin that Toussaint was indifferent toward black freedom, concerned primarily for his own safety and resentful over his treatment by the Spanish – leading him to officially join the French on 4 May 1794 when he raised the republican flag over Gonaïves. Thomas Ott sees Louverture as "both
8418-403: 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. As leader of the revolution, this accumulated wealth made Louverture the richest person on Saint-Domingue. Louverture's actions evoked a collective sense of worry among the European powers and
8540-720: The evacuation of all remaining British troops in Saint-Dominigue. On 31 August, they signed a secret treaty that lifted the British Royal Navy 's blockade on Saint-Domingue in exchange for a promise that Louverture would not attempt to cause unrest in the British West Indies . As Louverture's relationship with Hédouville reached the breaking point, an uprising began among the troops of his adopted nephew, Hyacinthe Moïse. Attempts by Hédouville to manage
8662-483: The extent that, until recent documents uncovered the marriage, few researchers were aware of the existence of Cécile and her children with Louverture. In 1782, Louverture married his second wife, Suzanne Simone-Baptiste , who is thought to have been his cousin or the daughter of his godfather Pierre-Baptiste. Toward the end of his life, Louverture told General Caffarelli that he had fathered at least 16 children, of whom 11 had predeceased him, between his two wives and
8784-460: The first weeks, Louverture eradicated all Spanish supporters from the Cordon de l'Ouest , which he had held on their behalf. He faced attack from multiple sides. His former colleagues in the slave rebellion were now fighting against him for the Spanish. As a French commander, he was faced with British troops who had landed on Saint-Domingue in September, as the British hoped to take advantage of
8906-492: The following Thermidorian Reaction , the committee's influence diminished after 26 months and it disappeared on the same day as the National Convention , which was 25 October 1795, but it probably continued till the end of the month. The French Revolution brought about an immense shift in society in which citizens desired to bring about a new age of critical rationality, egalitarianism , and patriotism amongst French men. Revolutionary ideals were spread throughout France and
9028-411: The guillotine. The elimination of the Hébertists and the Dantonists made evident the strength of the Committees to control and silence opposition. The creation in March 1794 of a General Police Bureau—reporting nominally to the Committee of Public Safety—served to increase the power of the Committee of Public Safety. However, even as the period later known as the 'Terror' reached its height and with it
9150-461: The hands of the British and Haitian armies and losing thousands of men to yellow fever , the French capitulated and withdrew permanently from Saint-Domingue the very same year. The Haitian Revolution continued under Louverture's lieutenant, Jean-Jacques Dessalines , who declared independence on 1 January 1804, thereby establishing the sovereign state of Haiti. Louverture was born into slavery ,
9272-411: The illusion of agreement. On 21 May 1794 the revolutionary government decided that the judicial system would be centralised, with almost all the tribunals in the provinces closed and all the capital trials held in Paris. The Law of 22 Prairial , proposed by the committee and enacted by the convention on 10 June 1794, went further in establishing the control of the Revolutionary Tribunal and above it
9394-487: The island and in the coming years supported them financially as they resettled in the United States and mainland France. In 1791, Louverture was involved in negotiations between rebel leaders and the French Governor, Blanchelande , for the release of their white prisoners and a return to work, in exchange for a ban on the use of whips, an extra non-working day per week, and the freedom of imprisoned leaders. When
9516-469: The island. Louverture went over his head and wrote to the French Directoire directly for permission for de Libertat to stay. Only a few weeks later, he began arranging for Sonthonax's return to France that summer. Louverture had several reasons to want to get rid of Sonthonax; officially he said that Sonthonax had tried to involve him in a plot to make Saint-Domingue independent, starting with
9638-399: The leadership of the rebellion, discussing strategy, and negotiating with the Spanish supporters of the rebellion for supplies. Wanting to identify with the royalist cause Louverture and other rebels wore white cockades upon their sleeves and crosses of St. Louis . A few days after this gathering, a Vodou ceremony at Bois Caïman marked the public start of the major slave rebellion in
9760-401: The model of the grands blancs and rich gens de couleur libres by becoming a planter. He began by renting a small coffee plantation, along with its 13 slaves, from his future son-in-law. One of the slaves Louverture owned at this time is believed to have been Jean-Jacques Dessalines , who would go onto become one of Louverture's most loyal lieutenants and a member of his personal guard during
9882-669: 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 . Louverture is thought to have been born on the plantation of Bréda at Haut-du-Cap in Saint-Domingue, where his parents were enslaved and where he would spend the majority of his life before the revolution. His parents would go on to have several children after him, with five surviving infancy; Marie-Jean, Paul, Pierre, Jean, and Gaou, named for his grandfather. Louverture would grow closest to his younger brother Paul, who along with his other siblings were baptized into
10004-470: The name referred to a gap between his front teeth. Despite adhering to royalist views, Louverture began to use the language of freedom and equality associated with the French Revolution. From being willing to bargain for better conditions of slavery late in 1791, he had become committed to its complete abolition. After an offer of land, privileges, and recognizing the freedom of slave soldiers and their families, Jean-François and Biassou formally allied with
10126-581: The nation from within. Dumouriez's defection lent greater credence to this belief. In light of this threat, the Girondin leader Maximin Isnard proposed the creation of a nine-member Committee of Public Safety. Isnard was supported in this effort by Georges Danton , who declared: "This Committee is precisely what we want, a hand to grasp the weapon of the Revolutionary Tribunal ". After
10248-423: The newly freed Cécile left Louverture for a wealthy Creole planter, while Louverture had begun a relationship with a woman named Suzanne, who is believed to have gone on to become his second wife. There is little evidence that any formal divorce occurred, as that was illegal at the time. Louverture, in fact, would go on to completely excise his first marriage from his recollections of his pre-revolutionary life, to
10370-490: The north, which had the largest plantations and enslaved population. Louverture did not openly take part in the earliest stages of the rebellion, as he spent the next few weeks sending his family to safety in Santo Domingo and helping his old overseer Bayon de Libertat. Louverture hid him and his family in a nearby wood, and brought them food from a nearby rebel camp. He eventually helped Bayon de Libertat's family escape
10492-411: The offer was rejected, he was instrumental in preventing the massacre of Biassou's white prisoners. The prisoners were released after further negotiations and escorted to Le Cap by Louverture. He hoped to use the occasion to present the rebellion's demands to the colonial assembly, but they refused to meet. Throughout 1792, as a leader in an increasingly formal alliance between the black rebellion and
10614-481: The ongoing instability to capture the prosperous island. Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville , who was Secretary of State for War for British prime minister William Pitt the Younger , instructed Sir Adam Williamson, the lieutenant-governor of Jamaica, to sign an agreement with representatives of the French colonists that promised to restore the ancien regime , slavery and discrimination against mixed-race colonists,
10736-450: The period. According to Gros, Jeannot ordered the torture and execution of one of his captives every 24 hours 'to prolong his enjoyment'. Before the execution of Gros and the other remaining prisoners, however, a higher ranking rebel leader, Jean-François , arrived in the camp. Jeannot was subsequently arrested, placed on trial, and executed on the orders of Jean-François (Dubois, p. 112, 123). This Haitian biographical article
10858-587: The plantation as hired help. There is a record that Louverture beat a young petit blanc named Ferere, but was able to escape punishment after being protected by the new plantation overseer, François Antoine Bayon de Libertat. De Libertat had become steward of the Bréda property after it was inherited by Pantaléon de Bréda Jr., a grand blanc (white nobleman), and managed by Bréda's nephew the Count of Noah. In spite or perhaps because of this protection, Louverture went on to engage in other fights. On one occasion, he threw
10980-413: The plantation attorney Bergé off a horse belonging to the Bréda plantation, when he attempted to take it outside the bounds of the property without permission. Until 1938, historians believed that Louverture had been a slave until the start of the revolution. In the later 20th century, discovery of a personal marriage certificate and baptismal record dated between 1776 and 1777 documented that Louverture
11102-501: The plantation where he grew up. Toussaint went from being a slave of the Bréda plantation to becoming a member of the greater community of gens de couleur libres ( free people of color ). 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
11224-623: The plantation, then the Creole French of the greater colony, and eventually the Standard French of the elite class ( grands blancs ) during the revolution. Although he would later become known for his stamina and riding prowess, Louverture earned the nickname Fatras-Bâton ("sickly stick"), in reference to his small thin stature in his youth. Toussaint and his siblings were trained to be domestic servants with Louverture being trained as an equestrian and coachmen after showing
11346-404: The populace forced to flee. White guardsmen in the surrounding area had been murdered, and Spanish patrols sent into the area never returned. Louverture is suspected to have been behind this attack, although was not present. He wrote to the Spanish 5 May protesting his innocence – supported by the Spanish commander of the Gonaïves garrison, who noted that his signature was absent from
11468-480: The prevailing Enlightenment era ideology of the French government at this stage of the revolutionary period. The constitution outlines a right to the resistance of oppression as well as the right to personal liberty. The equality of all French men is detailed as is the structure of the French Republic . The new constitution and the shift into a republican government centered on the National Assembly created
11590-641: The rebels' ultimatum. 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 events at Gonaïves made Lleonart increasingly suspicious of Louverture. When they had met at his camp 23 April, the black general had shown up with 150 armed and mounted men, as opposed to the usual 25, choosing not to announce his arrival or waiting for permission to enter. Lleonart found him lacking his usual modesty or submission, and after accepting an invitation to dinner 29 April, Louverture afterward failed to show. The limp that had confined him to his bed during
11712-425: The remaining members of a former slave's extended family and social circle. Louverture eventually bought the freedom of Cécile, their children, his sister Marie-Jean, his wife's siblings, and a slave named Jean-Baptist, freeing him so that he could legally marry. Louverture's own marriage, however, soon became strained and eventually broke down, as his coffee plantation failed to make adequate returns. A few years later,
11834-722: The repeal of many of the previous year's most unpopular laws and the restriction of the Committees of General Security and Public Safety. The Committees ceased to exist under the Constitution of the Year III (1795), which marked the beginning of the Directory . During the May 1958 crisis in France , an army junta under General Jacques Massu seized power in Algiers on the night of 13 May 1958 and General Salan assumed leadership of
11956-411: The return of the white planters who had fled Saint-Domingue at the start of the revolution. To the ideologically motivated Sonthonax, they were potential counter-revolutionaries who had fled the liberating force of the French Revolution and were forbidden from returning to the colony under pain of death. Louverture on the other hand saw them as wealth generators who could restore the commercial viability of
12078-462: The revolution, he was known to have verbally dictated his letters to his secretaries, who prepared most of his correspondences. A few surviving documents from the end of his life in his own hand confirm that he eventually learned to write, although his Standard French spelling was "strictly phonetic " and closer to the Creole French he spoke for the majority of his life. Beginning in 1789,
12200-475: The rights to all men, inspired a series of revolts across several neighboring French possessions in the Caribbean, which upset much of the established trade between the colonies. Many of the devout Catholic slaves and freedmen, including Toussaint, identified as free Frenchmen and royalists, who desired to protect a series of progressive legal protections afforded to the black citizenry by King Louis XVI and his predecessors. On 14 August 1791, two hundred members of
12322-502: The same cause. On the same day, the beleaguered French commissioner, Léger-Félicité Sonthonax , proclaimed emancipation for all slaves in French Saint-Domingue, hoping to bring the black troops over to his side. Initially, this failed, perhaps because Louverture and the other leaders knew that Sonthonax was exceeding his authority. However, on 4 February 1794, the French revolutionary government in France proclaimed
12444-573: The school that they were moved to the Collège de la Marche , a division of the old University of Paris . Here in Paris they would regularly dine with members of the French nobility such as Joséphine de Beauharnais , who would go on to become Empress of France as the wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. In September 1796, elections were held to choose colonial representatives for the French national assembly. Louverture's letters show that he encouraged Laveaux to stand, and historians have speculated as to whether he
12566-458: The situation made matters worse and Louverture declined to help him. As the rebellion grew to a full-scale insurrection, Hédouville prepared to leave the island, while Louverture and Dessalines threatened to arrest him as a troublemaker. Hédouville sailed for France in October 1798, nominally transferring his authority to Rigaud. Louverture decided instead to work with Phillipe Roume , a member of
12688-411: The start of the revolution, as Louverture spent the 1780s attempting to regain the wealth he had lost with the failure of his coffee plantation in the 1770s. It appears that during this time Louverture returned to play an important role on the Bréda plantation to remain closer to old friends and his family. He remained there until the outbreak of the revolution as a salaried employee and contributed to
12810-430: The surname Louverture, from the French word for "opening" or "the one who opened the way". Although some modern writers spell his adopted surname with an apostrophe, as in "L'Ouverture", he did not. The most common explanation is that it refers to his ability to create openings in battle. The name is sometimes attributed to French commissioner Polverel's exclamation: "That man makes an opening everywhere". Some writers think
12932-412: The third commission who had been posted to the Spanish parts of the colony. Although Louverture continued to protest his loyalty to the French government, he had expelled a second government representative from the territory and was about to negotiate another autonomous agreement with one of France's enemies. The United States had suspended trade with France in 1798 because of increasing tensions between
13054-438: The three children from his first marriage and his three sons from his second marriage are well known. Suzanne's eldest child, Placide, is generally thought to have been fathered by Seraphim Le Clerc, a Creole planter. In spite of this, Placide was adopted by Louverture and raised as his own. Louverture went on to have at least two sons with Suzanne: Isaac, born in 1784, and Saint-Jean, born in 1791. They would remain enslaved until
13176-592: The title Deguenon, meaning "old man" or "wise man" in the Allada kingdom, making Gaou Guinou and his son Hyppolite members of the bureaucracy or nobility, but not members of the royal family. In Africa, Hyppolite and his first wife, Catherine, were forced into enslavement due to a series of imperialist wars of expansion by the Kingdom of Dahomey into the Allada territory. In order to remove their political rivals and obtain European trade goods , Dahomean slavers separated
13298-473: The varying different populations on the island. The gens de couleur libres strongly identified with Saint-Domingue, with a popular slogan being that while the French felt at home in France, and the slaves felt at home in Africa, they felt at home on the island. Now enjoying a greater degree of relative freedom, Louverture dedicated himself to building wealth and gaining further social mobility through emulating
13420-543: The varying groups within Saint-Dominigue and was successful in this effort. His favor of fraternity and strict discipline defined the kind of leader he was. After hard fighting, he lost La Tannerie in January 1793 to the French General Étienne Maynaud de Bizefranc de Laveaux , but it was in these battles that the French first recognized him as a significant military leader. Some time in 1792–1793, Toussaint adopted
13542-518: The wheel in the public square in Le Cap in February 1791. For the slaves on the island worsening conditions due to the neglect of legal protections afforded them by the Code Noir stirred animosities and made a revolt more attractive compared to the continued exploitation by the grands and petits blancs . Then the political and social disability caused by the French Revolution 's attempt to expand
13664-447: Was a freeman , meaning that he had been manumitted sometime between 1772 and 1776, the time de Libertat had become overseer. This finding retrospectively clarified a private letter that Louverture sent to the French government in 1797, in which he mentioned he had been free for more than twenty years. Upon being freed, Toussaint took up the name of Toussaint de Bréda (Toussaint of Bréda), or more simply Toussaint Bréda, in reference to
13786-492: Was a committee of the National Convention which formed the provisional government and war cabinet during the Reign of Terror , a violent phase of the French Revolution . Supplementing the Committee of General Defence, created early January 1793, the Committee of Public Safety was created on 6 April 1793 by the National Convention . It was charged with protecting the new republic against its foreign and domestic enemies, fighting
13908-451: Was in sole command of French Saint-Domingue, except for a semi-autonomous state in the south, where general André Rigaud had rejected the authority of the third commission. Both generals continued harassing the British, whose position on Saint-Domingue was increasingly weak. Louverture was negotiating their withdrawal when France's latest commissioner, Gabriel Hédouville , arrived in March 1798, with orders to undermine his authority. Nearing
14030-451: Was invited to a parley by French Divisional General Jean-Baptiste Brunet , but was arrested upon his arrival. He was deported to France and jailed at the Fort de Joux . He died in 1803. Although Louverture died before the final and most violent stage of the Haitian Revolution, his achievements set the grounds for the Haitian army's final victory. Suffering massive losses in multiple battles at
14152-455: Was not included. Nevertheless, he continued to support the centralization of power by the committee. On 27 July 1793, Maximilien Robespierre was elected to the committee. At this time, the committee was entering a more powerful and active phase, alongside its partner, the Committee of General Security . The role of the Committee of Public Safety included the governance of the war (including
14274-400: Was not limited to whites and free blacks. He also targeted blacks who he suspected of loyalty to the white slave owners. One rebel commander named Blin, who helped some white slave owners to reach safety, for example, was brutally executed for treason by Jeannot. A man named Gros, who was among a group of white prisoners in a rebel camp under Jeannot's command, left behind a written account of
14396-596: Was noted for opening the warehouses to the public, proving that they were empty of the chains that residents feared had been imported to prepare for a return to slavery. He was promoted to commander of the West Province two months later, and in 1797 was appointed as Saint-Domingue's top-ranking officer. Laveaux proclaimed Louverture as Lieutenant Governor, announcing at the same time that he would do nothing without his approval, to which Louverture replied: "After God, Laveaux." A few weeks after Louverture's triumph over
14518-421: Was quoted as saying that " I am black, but I have the soul of a white man " in reference to his self-identification as a Frenchman, loyalty to the French nation, and Catholicism. Sonthonax, who had married a free black woman by this time, countered with " I am white, but I have the soul of a black man " in reference to his strong abolitionist and secular republican sentiments. They strongly disagreed about accepting
14640-481: Was returned to French rule in an atmosphere of order and celebration. In July, Louverture and Rigaud met commissioner Hédouville together. Hoping to create a rivalry that would diminish Louverture's power, Hédouville displayed a strong preference for Rigaud, and an aversion to Louverture. However, General Maitland was also playing on French rivalries and evaded Hédouville's authority to deal with Louverture directly. In August, Louverture and Maitland signed treaties for
14762-441: Was seeking to place a firm supporter in France or to remove a rival in power. Sonthonax was also elected, either at Louverture's instigation or on his own initiative. While Laveaux left Saint-Domingue in October, Sonthonax remained. Sonthonax, a fervent revolutionary and fierce supporter of racial equality, soon rivaled Louverture in popularity. Although their goals were similar, they had several points of conflict. While Louverture
14884-467: Was to manage potential rivals for power within the French part of the colony. The most serious of these was the mulatto commander Jean-Louis Villatte, based in Cap-Français . Louverture and Villate had competed over the command of some sections of troops and territory since 1794. Villatte was thought to be somewhat racist toward black soldiers such as Louverture and planned to ally with André Rigaud ,
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