Bill of Rights Constitutional Rights in Action Foundation winteR 2020 Volume 35 n o2 Haiti’s SLAVE REVOL Tan dWAR FOR INDEPENDENCE Toussaint Louverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines fathered with enslaved black women. played key roles in modern history’s only suc - Planters sometimes emancipated adult cessful slave revolt. What became known as slaves, too. Once freed, these “free peo - the Haitian Revolution led to the founding of an independent nation now called Haiti. ple of color” could have some of the same privileges as free whites, in - The large Caribbean island of cluding getting an education and Hispaniola, located between Cuba even becoming prosperous in and Puerto Rico, was the island business and trades. But they where Christopher Columbus did not have all the rights of full landed in 1492, claiming it for French citizens. Some became Spain. In 1697, Spain gave up the coffee growers and, once free, western side to France, which owned slaves themselves. took that portion as its colony of By 1790, there were a half Saint-Domingue. The eastern side million slaves laboring on Saint- remained the Spanish colony of Domingue’s sugar plantations. Santo Domingo. Their numbers overwhelmed the During the 1700s, Saint- white colonists 10-to-1. Up to a s Domingue emerged as the world’s i n d 10% of plantation slaves died each o e m m biggest producer of sugar. The sugar i m year due to overwork, hunger, bru - k i o plantations required large numbers W C tal treatment, and disease. The of laborers. The native Taino people French King Louis XIV ordered a were soon wiped out by slavery, code to protect slaves from mis - massacres, and European diseases. treatment, but the planters largely French colonists then replaced them ignored it. with African slaves. The Revolution Begins The port city of Cap-Francais, Toussaint Louverture, French general and leader usually called Cap (Cape), became of the Haitian Revolution. Uprisings in several French the French colony’s capital. Caribbean colonies, but not Saint- Through this city most slaves were Domingue, were inspired by the imported, and sugar was exported. By the late 1700s, American and French revolutions between 1776 and Saint-Domingue was France’s richest colony. 1789. However, the revolutionaries in those other Saint-Domingue’s social structure was shaped by the colonies were whites seeking self-rule and free people of institution of slavery. At the top were the white French color demanding an end to laws that discriminated planters. They owned the large sugar plantations and against them. Slaves did not participate in these revolts. most of the enslaved people who worked the land. Next France easily put them down. were whites who were plantation overseers, skilled In August 1791, a massive, well-planned slave revolt workers, merchants, and soldiers. Some of them owned erupted throughout Saint-Domingue. Rebels destroyed small coffee farms and a small number of slaves. hundreds of sugar and coffee plantations and killed many Unlike how slavery was practiced in the United French planters and their families. By September, 20,000 States, in Saint-Domingue white slaveholding men rebels had won numerous battles against French troops. often emancipated (freed) the mixed-race children they The Haitian Revolution had begun. IN THIS ISSUE World History: Haiti’s Slave Revolt and War for Independence by longtime contributor Carlton Martz ..............................................1 U.S. History : Remembering John Brown by CRF senior Program director sarah Badawi ...................................................................5 U.S. History/Government: What is Treason? The Aaron Burr Case by Carlton Martz .............................................................................9 © 2019, Constitutional Rights Foundation, Los Angeles. All Constitutional Rights Foundation materials and publications, including Bill of Rights in Action , are protected by copyright. However, we hereby grant to all recipients a license to reproduce all material contained herein for distribution to students, other school site personnel, and district administrators. (ISSN: 1534-9799) Louverture: From Slave to Revolutionary last name “Louverture,” from a French concept, mean - Toussaint Louverture was born around 1743 to West ing “the one who opened the way.” African slave parents on the Breda family plantation near France Abolishes Slavery Cap. His father was soon sold to another slaveholder. While the slave revolt on Saint-Domingue was going The Bredas were Roman Catholics, so Toussaint on, revolution in France overthrew the king and re - grew up a devout Christian. His mother named him placed him with a republic. Despite its soaring words Toussaint, meaning All Saints Day. He received some about all men being born “free and equal,” the new rev - education in the French language and culture from his olutionary government sent troops to crush the slave re - godfather, a free person of color who worked on the volt on Saint-Domingue. Breda plantation. Spain, long an enemy of France, supported the At about 18, Toussaint was given permission to in - Saint-Domingue rebellion from the neighboring colony formally marry Cecile who was also a Breda slave. of Santo Domingo. Louverture and other rebels crossed Fifteen years later in 1776, he was emancipated in cir - over into Santo Domingo and joined the Spanish army, cumstances that are not clear. One of his first acts was which then invaded Saint-Domingue to fight the French. to b uy Cecile’s freedom. At the same time, Britain also invaded in an attempt to Toussaint saved money from being a carriage driver grab the sugar-rich colony. for the Breda family and bought a small coffee farm But things changed quickly. In 1793, Leger worked by a dozen slaves that he leased. But this enter - Sonthonax, sent by France to end the slave revolt, prise failed, and his marriage and family split apart. He re - changed sides. He and the other French generals pro - turned to the Breda plantation as a manager of mules that claimed the emancipation of all Saint-Domingue transported sugar cane to the refinery that he helped run. slaves to draw them i nto the fight against Spain and By 1785, Toussaint had married again, this time in Britain. Louverture and the other rebel leaders the Catholic Church. Suzanne Baptiste was another changed their loyalty back to France and joined the Breda slave and probably the daughter of his godfather. French army. As with Cecile before, he paid for Suzanne to be free. The French government confirmed the emancipa - When the slave revolt began on Saint-Domingue in tion of slaves in Saint-Domingue in 1794. Then, in 1799, 1791, Toussaint was in his late 40s and not at first in - it declared the abolition of slavery throughout the volved. Soon, however, he joined the rebellion and French empire. Suddenly, freed slaves became French demonstrated outstanding military and political skills. citizens. France became the first major power to abolish These skills and his ability to speak French gave him a slavery. However, the free people of color did not im - key role in attempts to negotiate an end to the fighting. mediately gain full citizenship rights, which caused dis - Toussaint proposed banning the use of the whip and content among them. adding an additional non-work day. But the planters re - jected this, and the revolt continued. ‘The Black Napoleon’ Recognized as a key revolutionary leader, Toussaint Louverture and his former-slave soldiers took the lead became committed to ending slavery. He adopted the in successfully winning battles against the Spanish and 2 WOWROLDRL HDI S HTOISRTY ORY BRIA 35:2 (Winter 2020) s n o British. Spain finally withdrew in m and two-thirds of his navy to m o C 1795 and gave up Santo Domingo to Saint-Domingue under the com - a i d France. Britain left Saint-Domingue e mand of his brother-in-law m i k a few years later after yellow fever i Victoire Leclerc to restore French killed many British troops. W authority. When they landed near France promoted Louverture Cap, Louverture ordered the city to a general in the French army burned. He declared, “We must and then lieutenant governor of die or live free.” Saint-Domingue. He fought a To recruit fighters to his bloody civil war against a rival army, Louverture used the fear mixed-race general. The war of Napoleon bringing back slav - ended only after Louverture or - ery to Saint-Domingue. But dered massacres of many of his many who hated Louverture’s rival’s mixed-race supporters. cultivator policies refused to After the elimination of his rival, join. Napoleon’s professional Louverture was the de facto ruler army defeated Louverture in a of Saint-Domingue. number of battles, driving him Louverture began to establish into the mountains. He resorted relations with other countries, to guerilla warfare tactics. including the United States. The Jean-Jacques Dessalines, leader of the Haitian However, in May of 1802, U.S. had long traded with Saint- Revolution after Louverture and first ruler of an Louverture negotiated a cease-fire. independent Haiti. Domingue. And U.S. warships Shortly afterward, Leclerc arrested blockaded the ports controlled by Louverture's rival him and sent him in chains to France where he was im - during the Saint-Domingue civil war. prisoned. Louverture warned, “In overthrowing me you In 1799, the U.S. responded to French interference have cut down in Saint-Domingue only the trunk of the with its trade by placing an embargo (ban) on Americans tree of liberty; it will spring up again from the roots, for trading with France and its colonies. But Louverture man - they are numerous and they are deep.” aged to get President John Adams and supporters in Congress to make an exception to allow the continuation The War for Independence of American trade with Saint-Domingue.