Toussaint Louverture

Haitian revolutionary leader and general

• Born: 1743
• Birthplace: Breda Plantation near Cap-Français,
• Died: 1803

Toussaint Louverture seized leadership of a chaotic revolution and transformed it into a successful West Indian struggle that ended slavery in Saint-Domingue, politically united the island of Hispaniola, and brought France’s richest colony one step closer to independence.

Early Life

Born into slavery to African parents, François Dominique Toussaint Bréda, who would be known as Toussaint Louverture (tew-sahn lew-vehr-tewr), was reared in unique circumstances. His father, who claimed to be a prince, taught him the Arada language and lore, including herbalism. A solicitous godfather arranged for Toussaint to work in the refectory of a Catholic hospital, and the priests there provided instructions in religion and French. By the time Toussaint had to work full time on the plantation, he wrote French with difficulty, but he read easily and widely. Throughout his life, he retained a deep attachment to the Catholic Church and an admiration for French culture.

The plantation overseer, Bayon de Libertad, made good use of Toussaint’s broad education. Because of the boy’s healing skills, de Libertad placed Toussaint in charge of the Breda livestock. Toussaint developed special skills with horses and mastered the equestrian arts, earning the nickname “centaur of the savannas.” De Libertad later promoted Toussaint to coachman and plantation steward. Toussaint made Breda one of the best administered, most productive plantations in northern Saint-Domingue, and “wise as Toussaint” was a regional expression among all races.

In 1777, at age thirty-four, Toussaint was given liberté de savane—virtual but not legal freedom. He continued to run Breda and began a family. He married Suzanne Simone Baptiste, adopted her child by a mulatto lover, and fathered two sons himself. By 1789, when Toussaint was forty-six years old, he led perhaps as idyllic a life as possible for one of African parentage in Saint-Domingue. He wielded authority on a plantation, enjoyed the respect of whites and slaves, headed a stable family, had a savings of 650,000 francs, and owned a sizable library.

Life’s Work

On Toussaint Louverture’s shelves were books by the French philosophes, including the study of the Indies by Guillaume-Thomas Raynal. Raynal condemned slavery and predicted that in Saint-Domingue a black hero would rise and lead his fellow slaves out of bondage. Raynal’s antislavery writings found a voice in the revolutionary national assembly that convened in Paris in 1789.

Not numerous enough to end slavery, the abolitionists focused their efforts on securing equality for mulattoes. Offspring of planters and their slaves, mulattoes typically were educated and then, at age twenty-four, given freedom, property, and slaves. The forty thousand mulattoes equaled the whites in population and owned more than one-fourth of the colony’s half million slaves, but they were saddled with racially discriminatory laws.

When the national assembly left the decision concerning equality to the colonial legislature, the mulattoes were bitterly disappointed. Vincent Ogé, leader of the mulatto delegation in Paris, returned to Cap Français and organized a rebellion in October, 1790. Authorities quickly smashed the insurrection, but Ogé’s execution did not bring peace to the troubled colony. Already, small but serious disturbances between whites and mulattoes had flared in 1789 and 1790, but in August, 1791, a massive slave rebellion erupted.

A voodoo priest called upon all blacks to avenge themselves against the whites, and during the night of August 22, thousands of slaves responded to a drumbeat signal and began burning plantations and murdering whites and mulattoes in the northern plains. As refugees and pursuing congos, as the rebels were called, converged on Cap Français, Toussaint escorted de Libertad and his family to safety before leading 150 blacks to rebel headquarters.

Toussaint was immediately made one of the chieftain’s field secretaries and given the title physician in chief of the armies of the king of France. Blacks from Africa came from societies governed by kings believed to be semidivine, and in Saint-Domingue many slaves believed—much as French peasants believed—that if Louis XVI knew of their sufferings he would intercede. Toussaint constantly added recruits to his own band of followers, and by mid-1792 he commanded nearly one thousand rebels.

In June, 1792, the fighting intensified. Republican commissioners arrived to negotiate an end to the bloodshed, but whites and mulattoes rejected the blacks’ petitions for improved conditions for slaves. Toussaint, one of the rebuffed negotiators, then concentrated on disciplining his congos and forcing the French to change the slave system.

Colonial defense was the responsibility of General Étienne Maynard Laveaux, who remarked in frustration that no matter how he positioned his forces Toussaint always found an ouverture, or opening. When spies reported this comment to Toussaint, he changed his signature by replacing “Bréda” with “Louverture,” or, sometimes, “L’Ouverture.”

The byname Louverture trumpeted his skill as a tactical commander and, coincidentally, suited his gap-toothed smile. Until then he had been known as a frâtras baton (“weedy stick” or, even more apt for the guerrilla leader, “thrashing stick”). Sickly as a child, he was always thin. He was only five feet, two inches tall, but he had a dignified, even imperious, demeanor that gave him an air of command. Taciturn even among his intimates, Toussaint sought advice from priests, politicians, planters, and soldiers, but he rarely commented on their suggestions, and few could discern his emotions or thoughts by his expression.

In September, 1792, a reinforced Laveaux launched a counteroffensive that gained momentum until February, 1793. News that Louis XVI had been executed complicated the rebellion. Royalist soldiers and rebels, including Toussaint, offered their services to Bourbon Spain. Royalist planters appealed to Great Britain for protection from the congos and for the preservation of slavery.

In 1793, Saint-Domingue turned into a kaleidoscope of horror. Spanish armies, including that of Toussaint, invaded from the northeastern corner; a British expeditionary force seized important ports in the west and moved inland. Meanwhile, dozens of black leaders led slave insurrections, and mulatto generals fought to retain slavery and to achieve equality with whites. Fearing that the colony would be overwhelmed by the Spaniards and British, acting Governor Léger-Félicité Sonthonax abolished slavery by decree on August 29, 1793. Thousands of blacks rallied to the French tricolor and halted the Spanish offensive; at the same time, tropical diseases crippled the British. When news of France’s confirmation of the abolition decree reached the island, Toussaint left the Spaniards. Furious with Spanish officers, including fellow blacks, for reenslaving prisoners, Toussaint announced his volte face by massacring the Spanish population of La Marmelade.

Welcomed by Laveaux, Toussaint was promoted very shortly to brigadier general. For the remainder of 1794, Toussaint drove the Spaniards out of Saint-Domingue in a series of brilliant campaigns. While pressing the British, Toussaint learned that a mulatto coup had imprisoned Laveaux, who now was acting governor. Toussaint’s forces quickly crossed the island and rescued Laveaux, who gratefully appointed Toussaint lieutenant governor and proclaimed him to be the black Spartacus foreseen by Raynal.

With the establishment of the Directory in Paris, Toussaint maneuvered to have Laveaux and Sonthonax—who had returned as governor—elected to the legislature and returned to France by August, 1797. Now fifty-four years old, Toussaint was acting governor and commander in chief of Saint-Domingue. Virtually independent, Toussaint negotiated the evacuation of British forces and trade agreements with Great Britain and another French foe, the United States. Defying instructions from Napoleon I, Toussaint crushed the last mulatto insurgent, André Rigaud, and invaded Spanish Santo Domingo. On January 29, 1801, Toussaint abolished slavery in the former Spanish colony and promised to work for the prosperity of all the island’s inhabitants.

With Hispaniola united, Toussaint tried to protect the successful slave rebellion by restoring Saint-Domingue to prosperity. He devised a constitution that kept Saint-Domingue a French colony but minimized the extent of French authority. Recognizing that he was surrounded by colonies that depended upon slave labor, Toussaint seemed to be trying to keep a powerful patron while demonstrating that laborers need not be slaves to be productive. His labor code required all inhabitants to settle permanently and work; planters were to pay wages and share profits with workers. He outlawed voodoo, built roads, supported a fully integrated school system, and reestablished the Catholic Church. Formerly known as the Pearl of the Antilles, Saint-Domingue once accounted for 40 percent of France’s foreign trade and supplied almost half of the world’s coffee and more than half of the world’s sugar. By 1800, production levels had recovered to almost half of the 1789 yields.

Napoleon was not impressed with Toussaint’s military or governmental skills. Referring contemptuously to Toussaint as a “gilded African,” Napoleon IIII35IIII sent his brother-in-law, General Charles-Victor-Emmanuel Leclerc, and twenty-one thousand soldiers to Hispaniola to restore slavery and keep the island in France’s colonial orbit. Masking the expedition’s true purpose, Leclerc professed that Napoleon merely wished to honor Toussaint and his army.

The fleet began debouching its troops on February 2, 1802, only five months after Toussaint had discovered a plot among his generals, who charged him with restoring slavery. Suppressing the revolt resulted in more than two thousand deaths. Leclerc profited from lingering resentments, for, as Toussaint prepared to repel the French, his generals began to offer their armies to Leclerc. Toussaint inflicted heavy casualties on the French, but the reduction of his own forces compelled him to surrender on May 1, 1802. Leclerc permitted Toussaint to retire to one of his four plantations for a few weeks, then had him arrested on June 7, 1802. Toussaint was immediately whisked aboard the ship Héros and exiled to France. Napoleon refused to grant Toussaint a hearing and had him imprisoned in Fort-de-Joux, where he died of exposure and malnutrition on April 7, 1803.

Significance

Toussaint Louverture’s influence did not end with his death. Enraged at the treatment of Toussaint and aware of the real purpose of the expedition, blacks rose spontaneously against Leclerc and France. Despite twelve thousand reinforcements, the French could not withstand the combined attacks of guerrilla bands and tropical diseases. Black generals proclaimed Saint-Domingue independent of France and gave the former colony the indigenous people’s name Haiti. On November 30, 1803, seven months after Toussaint’s death, eight thousand French soldiers departed Cap Français, leaving behind not only forty thousand comrades in graves but also a new republic, the second to arise in the Americas.

Toussaint was posthumously hailed as the liberator of Haiti, but he otherwise has had a controversial legacy. To many, he provided proof of the capacity of blacks for education and self-government. These admirers emphasized Toussaint’s repeated acts of humanitarianism, particularly his willingness to unify all races. Detractors emphasize Toussaint’s shifting loyalties and occasional acts of brutality as evidence of deep cynicism and personal ambition.

Bibliography

Alexis, Stephen. Black Liberator: The Life of Toussaint Louverture. Translated by William Stirling. New York: Macmillan, 1949. Portrays Toussaint as a mystic who was driven by visions into megalomania.

Brown, Gordon S. Toussaint’s Clause: The Founding Fathers and the Haitian Revolution. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2005. Describes the United States’ reaction to the Haitian Revolution. Some Americans wanted to intervene in support of Toussaint and the rebels, but southern slaveholders, including Thomas Jefferson, rejected intervention because they were alarmed by Toussaint’s rise to power and leadership ability.

Dubois, Laurent. Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 2004. A chronicle of the Haitian Revolution. Describes the initial victory of Toussaint and other rebels, Toussaint’s defense of France against British and Spanish invaders, and his imprisonment by Napoleon.

Geggus, David Patrick. Slavery, War, and Revolution: The British Occupation of Saint-Domingue, 1793-1798. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. Applauds Toussaint’s humanitarianism and regards his military genius as the principal reason for the expedition’s failure.

Heinl, Robert D., Jr., and Nancy G. Heinl. Written in Blood: The Story of the Haitian People, 1492-1971. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978. Devotes one hundred pages to the Haitian Revolution in lively, detailed, and nonjudgmental fashion. Excellent summary of an excruciatingly complex period.

James, C. L. R. The Black Jacobins: Toussaint Louverture and the San Domingo Revolution. New York: Dial Press, 1938. Rev. ed. New York: Vintage Books, 1963. In this classic English biography, James suggests that Toussaint failed because he had no political philosophy—such as socialism—to consolidate his victories and because he was so reserved that people misunderstood and mistrusted him.

Korngold, Ralph. Citizen Toussaint. Boston: Little, Brown, 1944. Differing from others in several factual details, Korngold highlights Toussaint’s failures and successes and concludes that he was one of the most remarkable men of his period.

Ott, Thomas O. The Haitian Revolution, 1789-1804. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1973. A remarkable job of chronologically sorting out a confusing period, Ott’s work identifies Toussaint as the most able and admirable individual connected with the revolution.

Ros, Martin. Night of Fire: The Black Napoleon and the Battle for Haiti. Translated by Karin Ford-Treep. New York: Sarpedon, 1994. Originally published in Dutch in 1991, this is a popular biography, aimed at general readers interested in Toussaint and in Haitian history.