The Unveiling of Canadian History, Volume 4.
To Shining Sea – Ireland, Haiti, and Louisiana, and the Idea of a Continental Republic, 1797 – 1804.
Part 2 – The Haitian Frontier
Chapter 14 - The Liberation of Saint-Domingue, August 31st 1798
General Toussaint Louverture, with the Insurgent and French army, now fought against the British Royal Navy’s ‘Great Push’ - their final attempt to stop ‘the wild and pernicious doctrines of liberty and equality’ from spreading to the other British colonies and slave plantations.
General Toussaint Louverture
Toussaint Louverture now claimed that the Spanish refused to liberate the slaves and ‘have caused us to fight each other to diminish our numbers and to overwhelm the remainder with chains’.
Sonthonax had been recalled to France by the National Convention, and on June 15th, he had sailed from Saint-Domingue, leaving Laveaux in charge of the remaining French forces. Louverture met with Laveaux in July, and officially joined forces with the French.
Louverture drove the Spanish back eastward, drove the British back towards the coast, and soon controlled most of the Artibonite Valley. Laveaux and Villatte, the commander of the mulatto fighters in North Province, were able to lift the siege of Port-au-Paix and Le Cap Francois in North Province; and Rigaud, the commander of the mulatto fighters in South Province, attacked the British forces in the south, regaining Leogane and Tiburon.
In July 1795, the French National Convention would promote Louverture to Brigadier General, along with Villatte (the mullato commander of Le Cap Francois), Rigaud and Beauvais (the mullato commander at Jacmel).
Also in July, Spain withdrew from the Coalition fighting against France in Europe, and Spain ceded all of Santo Domingo to France. As the Spanish now withdrew from the fighting in Saint-Domingue, General Louverture would gain control over most of North Province and West Province, and most of the Insurgents who had fought under the Spanish would join the ranks of Louverture’s army.
The British offensive waned, as yellow fever and malaria began its attack on the troops, and by June 1795, they held only Saint Marc and Port-au-Prince in West Province, Jeremie in South Province, and Mole Saint Nicolas in North Province. In September, the British would capture Mirebalais, that opened an important supply line to the Spanish Central Plateau, and Louverture would wage a guerrilla war against the British, trying to regain Mirebalais.
And in August, the British faced a Maroon rebellion in Trelawny Parish in Jamaica. When the Moroons surrendered, instead of relocating them to another parish in Jamaica, as promised, the British instead deported the 500 Maroons to Nova Scotia.
In December, in its attempt to conquer Saint-Domingue and the rest of the French west indies, the British ministry decided to launch ‘the great push’ – sending General Ralph Abercromby with a force of 30,000 men in 200 ships, that arrived at Barbados in March 1796. He dispatched Gordon Forbes to Port-au-Prince with a force that, by June, would number 10,000 men. Forbes first launched an attack against Rigaud at Leogane, with 20 ships bombarding the town for 9 hours before attacking the city. The attack failed and the British were forced to retreat.
Forbes moved his forces to Saint Marc in an attempt to push back Louverture, but that offensive also failed. Louverture counter-attacked, and the British became bottled up at Port-au-Prince and Saint Marc, as yellow fever and malaria continued to take their toll. The British, meanwhile, had secretly been encouraging Villatte to depose Laveaux, whose support they believed was the basis of Louverture’s strength.
On March 20th 1796, 100 mulatto fighters entered the government palace at Le Cap Francois, seized the governor, Laveaux, beat him, dragged him through the streets, and threw him in prison. Louverture immediately sent 10,000 men to Le Cap Francois demanding that Laveaux be released or he would storm the city. Laveaux was released and Villatte and 600 of his followers fled. On April 1st, Laveaux made Louverture the Lieutenant Governor and the next day, Louverture increased his army with 5 new regiments – now commanding an army of over 20,000 men.
On May 11th, Sonthonax returned to Saint-Domingue. In 1794, Sonthonax and Polverel had been ordered to return to France by Robespierre to answer charges. By the time they arrived back in France, Robespierre was gone and the Terror was over. After a year of proceedings, in October 1795, Sonthonax was vindicated, and three months later, he was appointed as the head of a five-man Commission sent by the Directory, the head of the new government of France – to survey the administration and application of French law in the colony; to keep Saint-Domingue both French and free; and to restore its economic prosperity based on a system of general emancipation.
Now, in order to obtain military support from the two main commanders, Louverture and Rigaud, and also to win mulatto support in his efforts to eradicate all class and racial distinctions, Sonthonax first deported Villatte and his close followers to France, and secondly sent two delegates to meet with Rigaud in the South Province.
But the delegation proved to be a disaster, the delegates had to flee to (Spanish) Santo Domingo, and the South Province remained semi-independent of Sonthonax and French authority in the north.
In September, elections were held to chose Saint-Domingue’s representatives to the French National Assembly. Two of the elected representatives were Laveaux and Sonthonax. Laveaux left to take up his duties in France in October, but Sonthonax remained, writing letters to the government in France, requesting his recall, before he would leave for France.
In April 1797, Louverture finally recaptured Mirebalais from the British, and their new commander, General John Graves Simcoe, who had arrived on February 28, 1797.
After taking Mirebalais, Louverture then threatened the British at Port-au-Prince, but was forced to retreat. Simcoe sent Dessources, the grand blanc ally of the British, to advance from Saint Marc with 2000 men and attack Louverture at Verrettes, while at the same time he sent General Churchill to retake Mirebalais. Louverture moved with 10,000 men to face Dessources and annihilated his army. Louverture now launched an attack on Saint Marc, but the attack failed, forcing Louverture to retreat. However, the British realized that if Saint Marc fell, Mirebalais could then easily be retaken, and Simcoe recalled his forces from Mirebalais to defend Saint Marc, and Louverture reoccupied Mirebalais. For his success in the campaign, Sonthonax promoted Louverture to Commander in Chief of all the French forces in Saint-Domingue.
Note: Ironically (or karma, perhaps) Lt-Governor Simcoe, who had signed into law the act to end the importation of slaves into Upper Canada, left Canada in 1796 and returned to Britain on sick leave, but he was then re-assigned by the British ministry to Saint-Domingue – to lead the British fight against Louverture, arriving in January 1797. Simcoe returned to Britain in August because he was frustrated by the failure of the government to provide the troops and supplies that he felt were necessary. He then resigned his Saint-Domingue commission and his lieutenant-governorship in Upper Canada.
General Toussaint (as he would be called) and Sonthonax now tried to restore the plantation economy with freedmen’s labour. However, friction developed between them, when Sonthonax refused to allow any emigre to return to Saint-Domingue, while General Toussaint urged the return of many of the grand blancs, who had fled in 1793 – as he felt their knowledge and skills were essential to the restoration of the plantations. General Toussaint would authorize the return of Bayon de Libertat – the manager of the plantation where he had worked.
[Note: During Bayon’s exile in the United States, Louverture had sent him the proceeds from his plantations.]
In July 1797, Sonthonax sent General Toussaint an angry letter, protesting Bayon’s return – with a copy of the law ‘which condemns to death the emigres who return to the territory of the Republic after having been banished, and condemns those who have aided or favored their return to four years in irons’. General Toussaint would write to the Directory in Bayon’s defence. However, since no official list of emigres existed for Saint-Domingue, none of these plantations could be legally sold to anyone, but instead were leased to temporary managers – many of them were officers in General Toussaint’s army.
On August 19th and 20th, General Toussaint met with Sonthonax, accusing him of having earlier plotted for independence for Saint-Domingue, and demanded that Sonthonax return to France. General Toussaint would relate this conversation to the other commissioners, who wrote it down, and he sent it to the French minister of marine.
On August 20th, Sonthonax received a letter from General Toussaint and signed by the other generals and officers, telling him that:
“named deputy of the colony to the Legislative Corps, commanding circumstances made it your duty to remain for some time still in our midst; then your influence was necessary, troubles had disturbed us, it was necessary to settle them. Today, when order, peace and zeal for work, the reestablishment of agriculture, our success against our external enemies and their impotence permits you to present yourself to your function – go tell France what you have seen, the prodigies to which you have been witness. Be always the defender of the cause which we have embraced, of which we will be the eternal soldiers.”
Sonthonax stalled, to see if he might find any military support among the garrisons at Le Cap Francois. Meanwhile, General Toussaint gathered his forces outside the town and sent a message to the commissioners that ‘if your colleague has not left before sunrise, I will enter Le Cap with my dragoons and embark him by force.’ Sonthonax sailed for France on August 24th.
General Toussaint wrote to Laveaux, listing his complaints against Sonthonax, and Laveaux would defend him to the French legislature from the accusations by Sonthonax. He also wrote to the Directory that:
“could men who have once enjoyed the benefits of liberty look on calmly while it is ravished from them! They bore their chains when they knew no condition of life better than that of slavery. But today when they have left it, if they had a thousand lives, they would sacrifice them all rather than to be subjected again to slavery. But no, the hand that has broken our chains will not subject us to them again. France will not renounce her principles … But if, to restore slavery in Saint Domingue, you were to do so, then I declare to you, that would be to attempt the impossible; we knew how to face danger to win our liberty, and we will know how to face death to keep it.”
In March 1798, General Thomas Maitland, who had returned to London with Simcoe last August, now arrived back at Saint-Domingue, with a mandate for a withdrawal, and began negotiations with Louverture.
During the 5 years of the British invasion of Saint-Domingue, while earning more than £500,000 from exports, it had cost more than £7 million!!! As well as over 20,000 casualties!!! And, during those 5 years, the British army had purchased 13,400 slaves, to raise African slave regiments to do their fighting for them – which probably made them the largest single buyer of slaves in the Caribbean.
On April 30th 1798, an agreement was signed between General Maitland, commander of the invading British forces in Saint-Domingue, and General Toussaint, commander of the French forces in Saint-Domingue, that the British would withdraw from Port-au-Prince, Saint Marc, Arcahaye, and Croix-des-Bouquets (leaving all military installations intact) and in exchange, General Toussaint would promise to protect the lives and property of those who would remain and not leave with the British. Within the week, all the British troops had left. General Toussaint and his troops entered Port-au-Prince in triumph, and now controlled all of West Province.
On April 20th, the special agent of the Directory, General Theodore Hedouville – the ‘pacifier of the Vendee’, had arrived in Saint-Domingue at Le Cap Francais, with the Directory’s new plan to lull the Insurgents into an invasion of Jamaica – to export the slave revolt to the British plantations. General Toussaint realized that such a plan would destroy him and that ‘the old system might then be restored in St. Domingo and slavery re-established’. Maitland would soon learn of the French plan, and he wanted to stop any attempt of a French invasion of Jamaica, from Saint-Domingue, and launched an offensive to secure the western tip of the peninsula of South Province – the most probable place from which such an invasion might occur.
In June, Maitland’s forces broke through the encirclement of the British-held port of Jeremie, pushing back Rigaud’s mulatto army into Tiburon, and began a naval bombardment of Tiburon. General Toussaint rushed aid to Rigaud, and at the same time, began attacks on Mole Saint Nicolas, the other remaining British-held port, forcing Maitland to draw off some of his forces from the south, and his offensive soon collapsed. Maitland now began new negotiations with General Toussaint – the British would withdraw from its remaining ports, surrendering Jeremie to Rigaud and surrendering Mole Saint Nicolas to General Toussaint; Britain would continue to trade with Saint-Domingue; Saint-Domingue’s trade with the United States would have British support; and Britain would promise not to invade the French colony again, if, in return, General Toussaint would promise never to attack Jamaica. On August 31st the agreement was signed, and by early October, the last of the British troops left Saint-Domingue.
But, General Toussaint (not fully trusting Saint-Domingue’s future to the British Empire) rejected the offer from Maitland – that if Saint-Domingue would declare independence, they would receive the protection of the British navy from the French.
Conflict now arose between General Toussaint and Hedouville – over the remaining emigres and over work policy. Hedouville declared that all emigres must leave the colony and give up their property, while General Toussaint (as he had promised Maitland) instead pardoned those grand blancs that were left behind after the British withdrawal, because he needed their skills and experience in rebuilding the plantation economy. Hedouville announced his work policy, that required all field workers to engage themselves to their plantations for 3 years, while General Toussaint said this sounded too much like slavery.
Hedouville’s further plan was to rid himself of General Toussaint, by using the evacuation of the British troops as a pretext for reducing the army down to three small contingents for the three provinces – North, West and South; by naming a commander of each contingent – to be directly responsible to the Directory’s Agent; and by abolishing the post of Commander-in-chief. Hedouville would begin by trying to disperse the 5th Regiment, commanded by General Toussaint’s adopted nephew Moyse, that was stationed at Fort Liberte, near Cap Francais.
In mid-October, fighting broke out between the 5th Regiment and some of the planters in the area. Hedouville declared Moyse an outlaw, replaced him with Manigat, and ordered Rigaud to march to the fort, join with the mulatto troops that were there, and seize Moyse. Instead, General Toussaint amassed his army, and along with the thousands of field workers, marched to Le Cap Francais, and threatened to storm the city.
On October 22nd, Hedouville and his followers left Saint-Domingue in three ships and fled to France. General Toussaint wrote to the Directory, denying any ambition for independence and blaming all the trouble on Hedouville. He also wrote to Laveaux that ‘whatever may be the injustices of the agents of the government, I shall be no less constant in my principles and no less obedient to the authorities of the motherland.’
After General Toussaint had opposed the Directory’s plan for an invasion of British Jamaica, Hedouville then nominated Rigaud to carry out the plan – but Hedouville’s sudden departure put a stop to the planned invasion!
But before Hedouville left Saint-Domingue, he sent a letter to Rigaud to ‘hereby relieve you, Citizen General, of the obligation to recognize him [i.e. General Toussaint] as your Commander-in-Chief and instruct you to assume command of the Department of the South’.
[next week - chapter 15 - Toussaint’s Clause, February 9th 1799]
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For those who may wish to support my continuing work on ‘The Unveiling of Canadian History’, you may purchase my books, that are available as PDFs and Paperback (on Amazon) at the Canadian Patriot Review :
Volume 1 – The Approaching Conflict, 1753 – 1774.
Volume 2 – Forlorn Hope – Quebec and Nova Scotia, and the War for Independence, 1775 – 1785.
And hopefully,
Volume 3 – The Storming of Hell – the War for the Territory Northwest of Ohio, 1786 – 1796, and
Volume 4 – Ireland, Haiti, and Louisiana – the Idea of a Continental Republic, 1797 – 1804,
may also appear in print, in the near future, while I continue to work on :
Volume 5 – On the Trail of the Treasonous, 1804 - 1814.