The Haitian Revolution (French: RÃÆ' Â © volution haÃÆ'¯tienne Video Haitian Revolution
Historiography debates
While acknowledging the cross-influence, most contemporary historians distinguish the Haitian Revolution from the French Revolution. Some also separated it from previous armed conflicts by free-colored people seeking an expansion of political rights for themselves, but not the abolition of slavery. These scholars point out that if the enslaved black agent becomes the focus of study, the opening and closing dates of the Revolution are certain. From this premise, the narrative begins with the slave blacks' bid to gain freedom through armed struggle and end with their victory over the forces of slavery and the establishment of an independent state. In April 1791, a massive black rebellion in the north of the island rose violently against the plantation system, setting precedent of resistance to racial slavery. In collaboration with their former mulatto rivals, blacks ended the Revolution in November 1803 when they clearly defeated the French army at the Battle of Vertières. France has lost most of its troops due to yellow fever and other diseases. After admitting defeat at Saint-Domingue, Napoleon resigned from North America, approving the Louisiana Purchase by the United States.
Although a series of events during these years is known as the "Haitian Revolution," alternative views show that the whole event is a variety of coincidental conflicts that end in a fragile truce between blacks and free blacks. Historians debate whether the Haitian people who win "are intrinsically [a] revolutionary force". One thing is certain: Haiti became an independent state on January 1, 1804, when the council general chose Jean-Jacques Dessalines to occupy the post of governor-general. One of the country's first important documents is the "Death or Death" speech, which is widely circulated in foreign press. In it, the new head of state made the case for the new state's goal: the permanent abolition of slavery in Haiti.
Maps Haitian Revolution
Effects
An independent government was created in Haiti, but the people of that country remained heavily influenced by the patterns established under French colonial rule. As in other French colonial societies, the class of colored people has developed after centuries of French rule here. Many planters or unmarried young men have relationships with African or Afro-Caribbean women, sometimes giving away their freedom and their children, and providing education for mixed race children, especially boys. Some were sent to France for education and training, which sometimes gave permission to the French military. The mulattoes who returned to Saint-Domingue became the elite of colored people. As a learned class accustomed to the French political system, they became the elite of Haitian society after the war ended. Many of them have used their social capital to gain wealth, and some of the land already owned. Some have identified more with French colonists than slaves. Many color-free people, on the other hand, grew up in French culture, had certain rights in colonial society, and generally spoke French and practiced Catholicism (with the absorption of syncretism of African religions.)
Mulatto political and economic dominance, and urban life after the revolution, created a different kind of society of two castes, as most Haitians are rural subsistence farmers. The future of the new-born country staggered in 1825 when France forced it to pay 150 million gold francs in reparations to former French slave holders - as a condition of French political recognition and to end the political and economic isolation of the nation. Although the number of reparations decreased in 1838, Haiti could not complete paying its debt until 1947. The payments made the country's government very poor, causing long-term instability.
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Much of Caribbean economic development depends on the demand for sugar from Europeans. Plantation owners produce sugar as a commodity crop from sugarcane cultivation, which requires extensive labor. Saint Domingue also has extensive coffee, cocoa and indigo plantations, but these are smaller and less profitable than sugar plantations. Commodity plants are traded for European goods.
Beginning in the 1730s, French engineers built elaborate irrigation systems to increase sugar cane production. In the 1740s Saint-Domingue, along with the Jamaican British colony, has become a major supplier of the world's sugar. Sugar production depends on the extensive manual labor provided by enslaved Africans in the harsh colonial economy of the Saint-Domingue colonial estate. Saint-Domingue is the most profitable French colony in the world, even one of the most lucrative of all European colonies in the 18th century. An average of 600 vessels is involved annually in shipping products from Saint-Domingue to Bordeaux, and the value of Saint-Domingue's crops and goods is almost as valuable as all the products shipped from the British Third Quarter to England. The livelihood of 1 million of the 25 million people living in the Kingdom of France in 1789 depends directly on the import of coffee, indigo and sugar from St. Louis. Domingue, and several million indirectly depend on trade from France's richest colonies to maintain their standard of living.
Slavery sustains the production of sugar under harsh conditions, including an unhealthy Caribbean climate, where diseases such as malaria (brought from Africa) and yellow fever lead to high mortality. In 1787 alone, the French imported about 20,000 slaves from Africa to Saint-Domingue, while the British imported about 38,000 total slaves to all their Caribbean colonies. The yellow fever death rate is that at least 50% of African slaves die within a year of arrival, so employers prefer to work with slaves as hard as possible while providing the least food and shelter. They calculate that it is better to get the most out of their slaves at the lowest possible cost, as they may die from yellow fever. The death rate is so high that polyandry - a woman married to several men at the same time - develops as a common form of marriage among slaves. Since slaves have no legal rights, rape by masters, their unmarried sons, or white controllers is a common occurrence on plantations.
The white planters and their families, along with petty bourgeois merchants and shopkeepers, were outnumbered by slaves with a factor of more than ten in Saint Domingue. The largest sugar plantations and concentration of slaves are in the North of the islands, and whites live in fear of a slave uprising. Even by Caribbean standards, French slave masters are very cruel in their treatment of slaves. They use threats and physical acts of violence to maintain control and suppress the efforts of a slave uprising. When slaves leave plantations or disobey their masters, they are subjected to lashes, or more extreme torture such as castration or arson, a punishment that is a private lesson and a warning to other slaves. Louis XIV, the King of France, issued the Code of Noir in 1685 in an attempt to regulate violence and treatment of the commonly enslaved in the colony, but to overtly and consistently breach the code. During the 18th century, local legislation reversed some of it.
In 1758, white landowners began passing laws restricting the rights of other groups of people until a rigid caste system was defined. Most historians classify people of the time into three groups:
The first group is the white invaders, or les blancs . This group is generally divided into plantation owners and white lower classes who often serve as supervisors or day workers, craftsmen and shopkeepers.
The second group is color-free people (gens de couleur libre), usually a mixed race, and is sometimes referred to as mulattoes, African and French descent. They tend to be educated and educated, and people often work in the army or as administrators on the estate. Many children of white planters and enslaved mothers, or color-free women. Others have bought their freedom from their owners through the sale of their own crops or artwork. They often receive education or craftsmanship, and sometimes inherit the freedom or property of their father. Some gens de couleur own and operate their own plantations and become slave owners.
The third group, exceeding the number of others with a ratio of ten to one, consists of mostly African-born slaves. A high mortality rate between them means that the planters constantly have to import new slaves. This makes their culture more African and apart from others on the island. Many plantations have a large concentration of slaves from certain areas of Africa, and it is therefore easier for these groups to retain their cultural, religious, and linguistic elements. It also separates the new slaves from Africa from creoles (slaves born in colonies), who already have family networks and often have more prestigious roles in plantations and more opportunities for emancipation. Most of the slaves spoke with French accent called Creole, also used by mulatto and white skins born on the island to communicate with the workers.
The majority of slaves are Yoruba from the current modern Nigeria, the Fon from the present Benin, and from the Kingdom of Congo in the current area of ​​northern Angola and the western Congo. The Kongolese in 40% is the largest of African ethnic groups represented among slaves. The boys developed their own religion, a mixture of Roman Catholic syncretism and West African religions known as Vodou, usually called voodoo in English. This belief system implicitly rejects the status of Africans as slaves.
White colonies and black slaves often come into violent conflict. Saint-Domingue is a society that boils with hatred. The French historian Paul Fregosi writes: "White people, mulattos and blacks hate each other, poor white skin can not stand the rich white skin, the rich white man hates the poor white, the white middle-class white jealous aristocrats, white skin born in France looked down on the white man who was born on the spot, mulattoes jealous of white people, hated blacks and humiliated by whites, liberated Negroes slaughtering those who were still slaves, born blacks Haiti considers people from Africa as a wild man living in the fear of others... Haiti is hell, but Haiti is rich ". Many of these conflicts involve slaves who have escaped from plantations. Many runaway slaves - called Maroon - hide on the edge of a large estate, live off the ground and what they can steal from their previous master. Others fled to the towns, to mingle with city slaves and free the slaves who often migrated to the regions to work. If caught, these escaped slaves will be severely punished and cruel. However, some masters tolerate petit marronages, or short-term absence from plantations, knowing the release of this allowed tension.
Larger escape slave groups living in the forest of hills away from white controls often carry out loud raids on sugar and coffee plantations on the island. Although the numbers in these bands grew (sometimes thousands), they generally lacked the leadership and strategy to achieve large-scale goals. The first effective marriage leader to emerge was the charismatic FranÃÆ'§ois Mackandal, which managed to unite the black resistance. A Haitian priest Vodou, Mackandal inspires his people by making use of African traditions and religions. He united marun bands and also formed a network of secret organizations among plantation slaves, leading a rebellion from 1751 to 1757. Although Mackandal was captured by the French and burned at the stake in 1758, large armed maroon groups persisted in raids and harassment after his death.
Situation at 1789
Social stratification
In 1789 Saint-Domingue produced 60% of the world's coffee and 40% of the world's sugar imported by France and England. The colony is the most profitable possession of the French Empire. Saint-Domingue is the richest and most prosperous colony of all colonies in the Caribbean.
In 1789, whites numbered 40,000; mulattoes and free blacks, 28,000; and black slaves, about 452,000. This is almost half of the total population of slaves in the Caribbean, an estimated one million that year. Lower class people are black slaves, more than white and colored people with margins of more than six to one.
Two thirds of the slaves are African-born, and they tend to be less obedient than those born in America and raised in slave societies. The death rate in the Caribbean exceeds the birth rate, so the import of slaved Africans is needed to maintain the amount needed to work on the plantation. Slave populations declined at an annual rate of two to five per cent, due to overwork, inadequate food and shelter, inadequate clothing and medical care, and an imbalance between the two sexes, with more men than women. Some of the slaves were the elite slaves of the city slaves and households, who worked as cooks, waiters and craftsmen around the plantation house. This relatively privileged class is primarily born in America, while the lower classes born in Africa work hard, and more often than not, in cruel and brutal conditions.
Among the 40,000 white colonies of Saint-Domingue in 1789, French-born French monopolized administrative positions. The sugar planters, who are grands blancs , are mainly small aristocrats. Most return to France as soon as possible, hoping to avoid the frightening yellow fever, which regularly sweeps the colony. Lower class whites, petits blancs, including craftsmen, shopkeepers, slave traders, watchers, and day workers.
The colorful Saint-Domingue, gens de couleur libre , numbered more than 28,000 in 1789. Around that time, the colonial law, concerned with this growing and growing population, discriminatory laws that require these free men to wear special and limited clothing where they can live. The law also prohibits them from occupying many public offices. Many of these free people are also craftsmen and inspectors, or housemaids in plantation houses. Le Cap FranÃÆ'§ais, a northern port, has a large population of color-free people, including freed slaves. These people will be the important leaders in the slave uprising of 1791 and then the revolution.
Regional conflict
In addition to class and racial tension among whites, free-colored people, and black slaves, the country is polarized by regional rivalries between the Nord (North), Sud (South), and Ouest (West) regions.
North Korea is a center for shipping and trading, and has the largest French elite population, grands blancs . Rich white colonists wanted greater autonomy for the colony, especially economically. Plaine-du-Nord on the north coast of Saint-Domingue is the most fertile area, has the largest sugarcane plantation and is therefore the most slave. This is the most important area of ​​the economy, especially since most of the colony trade passes through these ports. The largest and busiest ports are Le Cap-FranÃÆ'§ais (now Le Cap-HaÃÆ'¯tien), the French capital of Saint-Domingue until 1751, when Port-au-Prince was made the capital. In this northern region, the enslaved Africans live in large working groups in relative isolation, separated from the rest of the colonies by the high mountains known as Massif du Nord. These slaves will join the city slaves from Le Cap to lead the 1791 uprising, which begins in the region.
The Western Province, however, grew significantly after the capital was moved to Port-au-Prince in 1751, and the region grew richer in the second half of the 18th century. The irrigation project supports the expansion of sugar plantations in the region. The South Province lags behind in population and wealth because it is geographically separated from the rest of the colony. However, this isolation allows freed slaves to seek profit in trade with Jamaican England, and they gain strength and wealth here. In addition to the inter-regional tensions, there was a conflict between independence supporters, those loyal to France, Spanish allies, and British allies - who wanted control of the precious colony.
The Effects of the French Revolution
In France, the National Assembly made radical changes in French law, and on August 26, 1789, published the Declaration of Human Rights, declaring all persons free and equal. The French Revolution affected the conflict in Saint-Domingue and was initially welcomed extensively on the island. The rich white man sees it as an opportunity to gain independence from France, which will allow elite plantation owners to take over the island and create trade rules that will add to their own wealth and power. There are many twists and turns in leadership in France, and so many complex events in Saint-Domingue, that classes and parties change their alignments over and over again. However, the Haitian Revolution quickly became a test against the ideology of the French Revolution, for radicalizing the problem of slavery and forcing French leaders to recognize the full meaning of their revolution.
Africans on the island began to hear the agitation of independence by the rich European planters, the grands blancs, who had hated French restrictions on the island's foreign trade. Africans mostly allied with the royalists and the British, because they understood that if the independence of Saint-Domingue would be led by white slave masters, it would probably mean more harsh treatment and increased injustice for the people of Africa. Plantation owners will be free to operate slavery to their liking without the minimal responsibility they have to their French friends.
Saint-Domingue's color-free people, especially Julien Raimond, have been actively appealing to France for civil equality filled with whites since the 1780s. Raimond used the French Revolution to make this a major colonial problem before the French National Assembly. In October 1790, Vincent OgÃÆ'Â ©, another wealthy rich man from the colony, returned from Paris, where he worked with Raimond. Convinced that the Declaration of Human Rights means that the richly colored people have full civil rights, OgÃÆ' Â © demanded the right to vote. When the colonial governor refused, OgÃÆ' Â © led a short uprising in the area around Cap FranÃÆ'§ais. He and an army of about 300 free blacks struggle to end racial discrimination in the area. He was arrested in early 1791, and was brutally executed by "broken on wheels" before being beheaded. OgÃÆ'Â © did not fight against slavery, but his treatment was cited by later slave rebels as one of the factors in their decision to rise in August 1791 and to reject the agreement with the colonists. Conflict up to this point is between white factions, and between whites and free blacks. The enslaved blacks watched from the edge.
Leading French writer of the 18th century, Count Mirabeau once said the white skin of Saint-Domingue "fell asleep at the feet of Vesuvius", pointing out the serious threat they face if the majority of slaves are waging a sustained uprising.
Relationship between the French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution
Reason for revolution
The Haitian Revolution is a revolution that is lit from below, by a majority of the unrepresented population. Most of the supporters of the Haitian revolution are slaves and liberate Africans who are discriminated against by colonial society and law.
Brutality
Regardless of the idealist, rational and utopian thinking that surrounds the rebellion, extreme brutality is a fundamental aspect of both rebellions. In addition to the initial cruelty that created the precarious conditions that magnified the revolution, there was violence from both sides throughout the revolution. The period of violence during the French Revolution was known as the Reign of Terror. A wave of suspicion meant that the government collected and killed thousands of suspects, ranging from famous aristocrats to people who thought of opposing leaders. They were killed by guillotine, "broken on wheels", mobs and other death machines: the estimated death toll ranged from 18,000 to 40,000. Total casualties for the French Revolution are estimated at 2 million. In the Caribbean, the total number of victims reached around 162,000. Violence in Haiti is largely characterized by military confrontations, riots, the killing of slave owners and their families, and guerrilla warfare.
Ongoing changes
The revolution in Haiti is not waiting for the Revolution in France. The call for community modification is influenced by the revolution in France, but once the hope for change finds a place in the hearts of the Haitian people, there is no cessation of radical reforms taking place. The ideals of Enlightenment and the initiation of the French Revolution were enough to inspire the Haitian Revolution, which developed into the most successful and comprehensive slave uprising in history. Just as France managed to transform their society, so did the Haitians. On April 4, 1792, the French National Assembly gave freedom to the slaves in saint-Domingue. The revolution peaked in 1804; Haiti is an independent country only from liberated people. Revolutionary activity sparked worldwide change. The French transformation is most influential in Europe, and the influence of Haiti stretches every location that continues to practice slavery. John E. Baur respects Haiti as home to the most influential revolution in history.
The influence of Enlightenment thought
The French writer Guillaume Raynal attacked slavery in the history of his colonies in Europe. He warned, "Africans only want a head, brave enough, to lead them for revenge and massacre." Raynal's Enlightenment philosophy goes deeper than predicted and reflects many of the philosophies of the French Enlightenment, including from Rousseau and Diderot. It was written thirteen years before the "Declaration of Human and Citizen Rights." The declaration, in contrast, highlights freedom and freedom but does not abolish slavery.
In addition to Raynal's influence, Toussaint Louverture, a free blacksman, was an "enlightened actor" in the Haitian Revolution. Enlightened thought divides the world into "enlightened leaders" and "uninhabited masses"; Louverture is trying to bridge the gap between the popular masses and some enlightened people. Louverture is familiar with the ideas of the Enlightenment in the context of European imperialism. He sought to balance the Western Enlightened thought as a necessary means of winning liberation, and did not spread the idea that it was morally superior to the experience and knowledge of colored people in Saint Domingue. Louverture wrote a Constitution for a new society in Saint-Domingue that abolished slavery. The existence of slavery in an enlightened society is a mismatch that has been abandoned by European scholars. Louverture takes this inconsistency directly in its constitution. In addition, Louverture shows connections to Enlighten scholars through the styles, languages ​​and accents of this text.
Like Louverture, Jean-Baptiste Belley was an active participant in the colonial insurrection. The Belley portrait by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson describes a man who included a French view of his colony. This portrait creates a glaring dichotomy between the perfection of the French Enlightenment thought and the reality of the situation in Saint Domingue, through the statues of Raynald and the figure of Belley, respectively. While distinguished, the portrait still depicts a man trapped by racial boundaries. Girodet's portrayal of a former representative of the National Convention narrates the French opinion of a colonial citizen by emphasizing the subject's sexuality and including earrings. These two racial symbols express the desire to undermine the colony's efforts on independent legitimacy, since the colonies can not access the French Revolutionary elite class because of their race.
Revolution
The enlightened author Guillaume Raynal attacked slavery in the 1780 edition of his colonial history in Europe. He also predicted a general slave rebellion in the colonies, saying that there were signs of "coming storms". One such sign was the French revolutionary government's move to grant citizenship to the free-colored people in May 1791. Because the white plantation owners refused to comply with this decision, within two months a separate battle broke out between former slaves and whites. This adds a tense climate between slaves and grands blancs.
Raynal's prediction came true on the night of August 21, 1791, when the slaves of Saint Domingue rose to rebel; thousands of slaves attended the vodou ceremony (voodoo) secret when the tropical storm came - lighting and thunder were taken as a harbinger of fortune - and later that night slaves began killing their masters and dropping the colony into civil war. The signal to start the rebellion was given by Dutty Boukman, a high priest vodou and Maroon slave leader, during a religious ceremony at the Bois CaÃÆ''dman on the night of 14 August. Within the next ten days, the slaves had taken over the entire Northern Province in an unprecedented slave uprising. The white man still controls only a few isolated and fortified camps. Slaves seek to take revenge on their employers through "looting, rape, torture, mutilation, and death". The years of oppression by slave masters has made many blacks hate all whites, and rebellion is characterized by extreme violence from the beginning. The masters and mistresses were dragged from their beds to be killed, and the heads of French children were placed in nails carried in front of rebel columns.
Plantation owners have long been concerned about such rebellions, and are well armed with some defense preparations. But within a few weeks, the number of slaves who joined the rebellion reached about 100,000. In the next two months, as the violence escalated, the slaves killed 4,000 white people and burned or destroyed 180 sugar plantations and hundreds of coffee and indigo plantations. At least 900 coffee plantations were destroyed, and the total damage inflicted over the next two weeks amounted to 2 million francs. In September 1791, the surviving white folks were organized into the militia and attacked back, killing some 15,000 blacks.
Despite demanding freedom from slavery, the rebels did not demand independence from France at this time. Most of the rebel leaders claimed to have fought for the king of France, whom they believed had issued a decree liberating slaves, who had been oppressed by the governor. Thus, they demanded their right as the French that the king had given them.
In 1792, the slave rebels controlled a third of the island. The success of the slave uprising led to the newly elected Legislative Assembly in France to realize it was facing an unpleasant situation. To protect French economic interests, the Assembly granted civil and political rights to free colored persons in the colonies in March 1792. Countries throughout Europe as well as the United States were shocked by the decision, but the Assembly decided to stop the insurgency. In addition to granting the rights to color-free people, the Assembly dispatched 6,000 French troops to the island. The new governor sent by Paris, LÃÆ' Â © ger-FÃÆ' Â © licitÃÆ' Â © Sonthonax, was a supporter of the French Revolution. He abolished slavery in the Northern Province of Saint Domingue and had a hostile relationship with the planters, whom he saw as a royalist.
Meanwhile, in 1793, France declared war on Britain. The grands blancs in Saint Domingue, unhappy with Sonthonax, arranged with Great Britain to declare British sovereignty over the colony, believing that England would retain slavery. British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger believes that the success of a slave uprising in Saint Domigue will inspire a slave uprising in the Caribbean Caribbean colony. He thought that taking Saint Domingue, the richest of the French colonies, would be a useful bargain tool when peace negotiations begin to end the war, and in the meantime, occupying Saint Domingue would mean diverting its wealth into the British treasury.. American journalist James Perry notes that the great irony of the British campaign in Haiti is that it ends up as a total disaster, spending millions of British pounds and thousands of British troops on thousands of dead, all in vain.
Spain, which controls the entire island of Hispaniola, also joined the conflict and fought against France. From the beginning, Santo Domingo Spain has encouraged disruption in Saint Domingue. Spanish troops stormed the Saint Domingue and joined the slave army. For most of the conflict, Britain and Spain supplied the rebels with food, ammunition, weapons, drugs, naval support, and military advisors. In August 1793, there were only 3,500 French soldiers on the island. On September 20, 1793, about 600 British soldiers from Jamaica landed in JÃÆ' Â © rÃÆ' Â © n noodles to be greeted with shouts of "Vivent les Anglais!" From the French population.On September 22, 1793, Mole St. Nicolas, the main French naval base in Saint Domingue, surrendered to the Royal Navy in peace.Wherever England went, they restored slavery, which made them hated by the masses of ordinary people, to prevent military disasters, and secured colonies for the French republic as against French, Spanish and French royalists, separately or in combination, French commissioner LÃÆ'Ã… © ger-FÃÆ' © © Sonthonax and ÃÆ' â € ° tienne Polverel freed slaves at St. Domingue.
The decision was confirmed and extended by the National Convention, the first elected Assembly of the First Republic (1792-1804), on 4 February 1794, under the leadership of Maximilien Robespierre. It removes slavery by law in France and all its colonies, and gives civil and political rights to all blacks in the colony. The French Constitutions of 1793 and 1795 both included the abolition of slavery. The 1793 Constitution was never applied, but in 1795 it was implemented and lasted until it was succeeded by the constitution and the imperial constitution under Napoleon Bonaparte. Despite the racial tensions in Saint Domingue, the French revolutionary government at that time welcomed the abolition by showing idealism and optimism. Liberation of slaves is seen as an example of freedom for other countries, just like the American Revolution intended to serve as the first of many liberation movements. Danton, one of the French people who attended the National Convention meeting, expressed this sentiment:
representatives of the French people, until now our freedom decision is selfish, and only for ourselves. But today we proclaim it to the universe, and future generations will glory in this decision; we proclaim universal freedom... We work for future generations; let's launch freedom into the colony; English is dead, today.
In nationalistic terms, the abolition of slavery also serves as France's moral victory over England, as seen in the second half of the above quote. But Toussaint Louverture did not stop working with the Spanish army until some time later, because he was suspicious of France.
British troops who landed at St. Domingue in 1793 was too small to conquer the place, only able to hold only a few beach bags. The French planters were disappointed that they hoped to regain power; Sonthonax was relieved, for he had twice rejected the ultimatum from Commodore John Ford to hand over Port-au-Prince. Meanwhile, Spanish troops under Captain Joaquin Garcia y Moreno have marched towards the Northern Province. Toussaint Louverture, the most adept of the Haitian generals, had joined the Spanish, receiving an officer commission in the Spanish Army and becoming a knight in the Order of St. Isabella.
The main power of England for the conquest of St. Domingue under General Charles Gray aka "No-flint Gray" and Admiral Sir John Jervis sailed from Portsmouth on November 26, 1793, deviating from the famous rule that the only time that people can campaign in the West Indies is from September to November, when mosquitoes carrying malaria and yellow fever are still scarce. After arriving in the West Indies in February 1794, Gray chose to conquer Martinique, St. Lucia, and Guadeloupe. The troops under John Whyte did not arrive at St. Domingue until May 19, 1794. Instead of attacking France's main base at Le Cap and Port-de-Paix, Whyte chose to march towards Port-au-Prince, whose port is reported to have 45 ships full of sugar. Whyte took Port-au-Prince, but Sonthonax and French troops were allowed away in return for not burning 45 ships full of sugar. In May 1794, the French army was cut to two by Toussaint, with the commander Sonthonax in the north and AndrÃÆ'Â © Rigaud leading in the south.
At this point, Toussaint, for reasons still unclear, suddenly joined the French and turned against Spain, ambushed his allies when they emerged from attending mass at a church in San Raphael on May 6, 1794. The Spaniards did not were defeated militarily, but their progress was under control, and when in 1795 Spain handed Santo Domingo to France, the Spanish attack on the Saint Domingue ceased. Despite the former slave, Toussaint proved to forgive white people, insisting that he fought to assert the rights of slaves as black Africans to be free. He said he did not seek independence from France, and urged the living white man, including his former slave, to stay and work with him in rebuilding St. Domingue.
Rigaud has examined England in the south, taking the city of LÃÆ'Ã… © ogÃÆ'Â ¢ ne by storm and moving the English back to Port-au-Prince. During 1794, most of the British troops were killed by yellow fever, the dreaded "black vomit" when the British called it. Within two months of arriving at St. Domingue, Britain has lost 40 officers and 600 men into yellow fever. Eventually, out of 7,000 Gray men, about 5,000 would die of yellow fever while the Royal Navy reported the loss of "... forty-six masters and eleven hundred dead, especially yellow fever". The English historian Sir John Fortescue wrote "Probably under the mark to say that twelve thousand British people were buried in the West Indies in 1794". Rigaud failed to reclaim Port-au-Prince, but on Christmas Day 1794, he raided and reconquered Tiburon in a surprise attack. Britain lost about 300 people, and the mulattoes did not take prisoners, executed the surrendered British soldiers and sailors.
At this point, Pitt decided to strengthen failure by launching what he called the "great push" to conquer St. Domingue and the rest of the French West Indies, sent the largest expedition that the British had done in its history, the force of about 30,000 people to be brought in 200 ships. Fortescue writes that London's purpose in the first expedition was to destroy "French forces on islands full of danger... only to discover when it was too late, that they practically destroyed the British army". At this point, it is well known that service in the West Indies is actually a death sentence. In Dublin and Cork, soldiers from 104, 111, 105, and 112 regiments rioted when they learned they were being sent to St. Domingue. The fleet for the "big push" left Portsmouth on 16 November 1795 and was marred by a storm, before being sent again on December 9th.
General Ralph Abercromby, the commander of the "big push" troop, was uncertain about which island would strike when he arrived in Barbados on 17 March 1796. He sent troops under Major General Gordon Forbes to Port-au-Prince. The efforts of Forbes to seize the French town of LÃ © gene ended in disaster. France has built a deep trench of defense with a palisade, while Forbes has neglected carrying heavy artillery. The French commander, Mulatto General Alexandre PÃÆ'Ã… © tion, proved to be an excellent artillery, using weapons from his fort to drown two of the three liner-lines under Admiral Hyde Parker at the harbor, before turning his weapon into British troops; France's sudden attack led to England's defeat and Forbes retreating to Port-au-Prince. When more ships arrived with British troops, more soldiers died of yellow fever. On June 1, 1796, out of 1,000 people from the Sixty Six Regiment, only 198 were not yet infected with yellow fever; and out of 1,000 people in the Sixth-ninth regiment, only 515 are uninfected with yellow fever. Abercromby predicted that at the current rate of yellow fever infection, all men of the two regimens would die in November. Eventually, 10,000 British troops arrived at Saint Domingue in June, but in addition to some minor battles near Bombarde, the British remained in Port-au-Prince and other coastal areas, while yellow fever continued to kill them all. The government drew a lot of criticism in the House of Commons about the rising cost of expeditions to the St Domingue. In February 1797, General John Graves Simcoe arrived to replace Forbes with an order to retract British troops to Port-au-Prince. As the human and financial costs of expeditions increase, people in Britain are demanding a withdrawal from St. Domingue, who spent money and soldiers, while failing to produce the expected profits.
On 11 April 1797, Colonel Thomas Maitland of the Sixty-foot Regiment landed in Port-au-Prince, and wrote in a letter to his brother that the British troops at St. Domingue has been "annihilated" by yellow fever. Service at St. Domingue is very unpopular in the British Army because of a very bad death caused by yellow fever. An English officer writes about his fears of seeing his friends "drowning in their own blood" while "some died babbling Mad". Simcoe used a new British force to push back Haiti under Toussaint, but on the counter-attack, Toussaint and Rigaud halted the attack. Toussaint retakes the fort at Mirebalais. On June 7, 1797, Toussaint attacked Fort Churchill in an attack known for his professionalism for his ferocity. Under an artillery storm, the Haitians put the ladder on the wall and were pushed back after four times, with huge losses. Although Toussaint had been defeated, the British were surprised that he had transformed a group of ex-slaves with no military experience of being an army whose skills were equivalent to European troops.
In July 1797, Simcoe and Maitland sailed to London to suggest a total withdrawal from St. Domingue. In March 1798 Maitland returned with a mandate to retreat, at least from Port-au-Prince. On May 10, 1798, Maitland met with Toussaint to agree on a ceasefire, and on May 18 the British had left Port-au-Prince. The British spirit had collapsed with the news that Toussaint had taken Port-au-Prince, and Maitland decided to leave all of St. Domingue, writing that the expedition has become a complete disaster so the withdrawal is the only thing that makes sense to do, even through he has no authority to do so. On August 31, Maitland and Toussaint signed an agreement whereby in return for the British withdraw from all of St. Domingue, Toussaint promised not to support the slave uprising in Jamaica. Between 1793-98, the expedition to St. Domingue cost the British treasury of four million pounds and 100,000 people dead or permanently disabled due to the effects of yellow fever.
After the departure of England, Toussaint turned his attention to Rigaud, who conspired against him in the south of Saint Domingue. In June 1799, Rigaud initiated the War of Knives against the rules of Toussaint, sending brutal attacks on Petit-GoÃÆ' ¢ ve and Grand-Goà  ¢ ve. Without custody, Rigaud's dominated mulatto forces placed blacks and whites on the sword. Although the United States was hostile to Toussaint, the US Navy agreed to support Toussaint's troops with the USS General Greene warship, commanded by Captain Christopher Perry, providing fire support to blacks as Toussaint surrounded the city. from Jacmel, held by the mulatto forces under the command of Rigaud. For the United States, Rigaud's ties to France posed a threat to American trade. On March 11, 1800, Toussaint took Jacmel and Rigaud to flee to the French vessel La Diana . Although Toussaint maintains that he is still loyal to France, for all intents and purposes, he orders Saint Domingue as his dictator.
At the beginning of the 21st century, historian Robert L. Scheina estimates that the slave uprising resulted in the deaths of 350,000 Haitians and 50,000 European troops. According to the Encyclopedia of African American Politics, "Between 1791 and independence in 1804 nearly 200,000 blacks died, as do thousands of mulattoes and as many as 100,000 French and English soldiers." Yellow fever causes the most deaths. Geggus pointed out that at least 3 of every 5 British troops sent there in 1791-97 died of disease. There is much debate as to whether the number of deaths caused by the disease is exaggerated.
Louverture Leadership
One of the most successful black commanders was Toussaint Louverture, a former self-educated domestic slave. Like Jean FranÃÆ'§ois and Biassou, he initially fought for the Spanish crown in this period. After the British invaded Saint-Domingue, Louverture decided to fight for France if they agreed to release all slaves. Sonthonax had proclaimed an end to slavery on 29 August 1792. Louverture worked with a French general, ien ien tienne Laveaux, to ensure that all slaves would be freed. Louverture left the Spanish army in the east and brought his troops to France on May 6, 1794 after Spain refused to take steps to end slavery.
Under the military leadership of Toussaint, troops composed mostly of former slaves managed to win concessions from Britain and expel the Spanish forces. Ultimately, Toussaint basically restored the control of Saint-Domingue to France. Louverture is very intelligent, organized and articulate. Having made himself a master of the island, however, Toussaint did not want to give too much power to France. He began to rule the country as an effective autonomous entity. Louverture overcame the succession of local rivals, including: Commissioner Sonthonax, a French white man who had the support of many Haitians, angered Louverture; Andrà © © Rigaud, a free-skinned man who fought to defend Southern control in the Knife War; and Comte d'HÃÆ' © douville, which forced a fatal blow between Rigaud and Louverture before fleeing to France. Toussaint defeated the British expeditionary troops in 1798. In addition, he led the invasion of neighboring Santo Domingo (December 1800), and freed the slaves there on January 3, 1801.
In 1801, Louverture issued a constitution to Saint-Domingue that decided he would become governor for life and called for black autonomy and a sovereign black state. In response, Napoleon Bonaparte sent a large expeditionary army and warship to the island, led by Bonaparte's brother-in-law, Charles Leclerc, to restore the French government. They are under secret instruction to restore slavery, at least on the part of the island that was once held by Spain. Bonaparte ordered that Toussaint be treated with respect until the French army was established; After it was done, Toussaint was summoned to Le Cap and captured; if he fails to show, Leclerc will "fight to the death" without mercy and all Toussaint's followers are shot when captured. Once that is done, slavery will eventually be restored. Many French soldiers were accompanied by mulatto forces led by Alexandre PÃÆ'Ã… © tion and Andrà ©  © Rigaud, the mulatto leader who had been defeated by Toussaint three years earlier.
France arrived on 2 February 1802 at Le Cap with Haitian commander Henri Christophe ordered by Leclerc to surrender the city to France. When Christophe refused, the French attacked Le Cap and the people of Haiti made the city on fire rather than surrendering it. Leclerc sent Toussaint's letters promising him: "Do not worry about your personal luck, it will be preserved for you, because it is too good for your own endeavor, do not worry about the freedom of your fellow citizens." When Toussaint still failed to appear at Le Cap, Leclerc issued a proclamation on February 17, 1802: "General Toussaint and General Christophe are forbidden, all citizens are ordered to hunt them, and treat them as rebels against the French Republic". Captain Marcus Rainsford, a British Army officer visiting St. Domingue observed the training of the Haitian Army, writing: "At the whistle, the entire brigade ran three or four hundred meters, and then, separating, throwing themselves flat on the ground, turning to their backs and sides, and all the time keeping a strong fire until remembered... This movement was run with such facilities and precision totally to prevent the cavalry from charging them in a dense and hilly country.In a letter to Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Toussaint outlined his plan to defeat France: "Do not forget, while waiting for the reason for the rain that will remove us from our enemy, that we have no other resources besides destruction and fire. Bear in mind that the soil bathed in our sweat should not give our enemies with the smallest sustenance. Tearing down the street with gunfire, throwing corpses and horses onto all the foundations, burning and wiping them out so that those who have come to reduce us to slavery. probably in front of their eyes the image of hell they deserve. "Dessalines never received the letter because he had been taken to the field, avoiding the French column sent to arrest him and invade LÃÆ'Ã… © ogane The Haitians burned Leogane and killed everyone France with the Trinidad historian, CLR James, writes Dessalin's actions at Leogane: "Men, women and children, indeed all white people who come into his hands, he slaughtered. And forbid burials, he goes piles of decomposing corpses under the sun to attack terror into French detachments as they work hard behind his flying columns. "France expects Haiti to gladly return to be their slave, as they believe it is natural for blacks to become slaves and was amazed to find out how many Haitians hated them for wanting to reduce it back to life in the chain.A Pamphile de Lacroix who looked shocked after seeing the Leogane ruins wrote: "They hoard bodies" that "still have their attitude; they bowed, their hands reached out and begged; the ice of death does not wipe their eyes on the "face".
Leclerc ordered four French columns to line up in Gonaives, which is Haiti's main base. One of the French columns was ordered by General Donatien de Rochambeau, a proud white pride and a slave-supporter who hated the Haitians for wanting to be free. Toussaint tried to stop Rochambueau at Ravin-a-Couleuvre, a very narrow mound in the mountains that the Haitians had filled by cutting down trees. In ensuring the Battle of Ravine-ÃÆ'-Couleuvres, after six hours of fierce hand-to-hand battle with no quarter given on either side, the French finally got away, albeit with huge losses. During the battle, Toussaint personally took part in the battle to lead his men in charge against France. After losing 800 people, Toussaint ordered the retreat.
The Haitians further tried to stop France in a castle built in England in the mountains called CrÃÆ'ªte-ÃÆ' -Pierrot, a battle that is remembered as a national epic in Haiti. While Toussaint took to the field, he left Dessalines as commander of CrÃÆ'ªte-ÃÆ' -Pierrot, who from his faded line could see three French columns assembled at the castle. Dessalines appeared before his men standing on a powder keg, holding the torch burning, saying: "We will be attacked, and if the French put their feet here, I will blow them all up", leading his men to retaliate "We will die for freedom ! ". The first French columns that appeared before the castle were ordered by General Jean Boudet, whose men were harassed by skirmisher until they reached the deep ditch that Haiti had dug up. As the French tried to cross the moat, Dessalines ordered his men hiding out and fired, hitting France with artillery fire and superb rifle shots, inflicting heavy losses on the attackers. General Boudet himself was wounded and, as the dead and wounded French began to pile up in the trench, the Frenchman retreated. The next French commander who tried to attack the trench was General Charles Dugua, who joined shortly afterwards by a column ordered by Leclerc. All the French attacks ended in total failure, and after the failure of their last attack, the Haitians accused France of cutting down the French. General Dugua was killed, Leclerc was injured and France lost about 800 people dead. The last French column to arrive was ordered by Rochambeau, who carried a heavy artillery that dropped the Haitian artillery, through his attempt to storm the trench and end in failure with some 300 of his men killed. Over the next few days, the French continued to bombard and attack the castle, only to be beaten back every time while Haitians challenged singing French Revolution songs, celebrating the rights of all men to be equal and free. The Haitian psychological warfare was successful with many French soldiers asking why they were fighting to enslave Haitians, who only asserted the rights promised by the Revolution to free everyone. Although Bonaparte tried to maintain his intention to return slavery to secrets, it was believed by both sides that that is why France returns to Haiti, because sugarcane plantations only benefit by forced labor. Finally after twenty days of siege with food and ammunition runs out, Dessalines ordered his men to leave the fortress on the night of March 24, 1802 and the Haitians out of the fort to fight another day. Even Rochambeau, who hates all blacks, was forced to confess in a report: "Their retreat - the amazing retreat of our trap - is a great achievement". The French have won, but they have lost 2,000 people who died against an opponent they held in contempt on the ground of race, trusting all blacks to be fools and cowards, and further, that the shortage of food and ammunition that compels the Haitians retreat, not because of the arms achievements by the French army.
After the Battle of CrÃÆ'ªte-ÃÆ' -Pierrot, Haitians abandoned conventional warfare and returned to guerrilla tactics, leaving the French to capture most of the countryside from Le Cap to the very tenuous Artibonite valley. In March, the rainy season arrives at St. Domingue, and when the puddles collect, the mosquitoes begin to multiply, causing a yellow fever outbreak. By the end of March, 5,000 French soldiers had died of yellow fever and another 5,000 were hospitalized with yellow fever, which caused Leclerc to worry about writing in his diary: "The rainy season has arrived, my troops exhausted from fatigue and illness."
On 25 April 1802, the situation suddenly changed when Christophe defected with many Haitian Army to France. Louverture was promised his freedom if he agreed to integrate his remaining troops into the French army. Louverture agreed to this on May 6, 1802. Just why Toussaint is motivated to surrender alone has been the subject of much debate with the most likely explanation being that he is only tired after 11 years of war. Under the terms of surrender, Leclerc gave his serious words that slavery would not be restored at St. Domingue, that blacks could become officers in the French Army, and that the Haitian Army would be allowed to integrate into the French Army. Leclerc also gave Toussaint a plantation in Ennery. Toussaint was later deceived, seized by the French and sent to France. He died a few months later in jail at Fort-de-Joux in the Jura region. Shortly afterwards, the fierce Dessalines drove Le Cap to bow to France and were rewarded by making the governor of Saint-Marc, a place occupied by Dessalines with his usual cruelty. However, the surrender of Christophe, Toussaint and Dessalines did not mean the end of the Haitian resistance. Across the countryside, guerrilla warfare continued and France launched mass executions through firing squads, hung and drowned Haitians into bags. Rochambeau discovered a new way of mass execution, which he called "fumigational-sulfur baths" to kill hundreds of Haitians in holding ships by burning sulfur to make sulfur dioxide their gas.
Resilience to slavery
For several months, the island was calm under Napoleon's rule. But when it became clear that the French intended to rebuild slavery (because they almost did it in Guadeloupe), the black cultivators rebelled in the summer of 1802. Yellow fever had destroyed France; in mid-July 1802, France lost about 10,000 dead to yellow fever. In September, Leclerc wrote in his diary that he had only 8,000 men left because yellow fever had killed another. Many of the "French" soldiers are actually Poles, as 5,000 Poles serve in two brigades after the French forces. Many Poles believe that if they fought for France, Bonaparte would reward them with restoring Polish independence, which had ended with the Polish Third Partition in 1795. Of the 5,000 Poles, about 4,000 people died of yellow fever. A French grower writes about the Polish army: "Ten days after the landing of these two beautiful regiments, more than half of them were taken by yellow fever, they fell as they walked, blood flowed out through nostrils, mouths, eyes... terrible scenes and heartbreaking! ". Sometimes, Poland dies in battle. At the battle in Port Sault, the Polish Third Battalion fought some 200 Haitians who ambushed them with rifle fire and by pushing rocks at them. One historian noted that "the Poles, instead of spreading, each person for himself, are slowly advancing in crowded masses that provide the ideal target for well-protected rebel fighters." Most of the Poles were cut down by Haitians, which led Rochambeau to comment that one can always count on Poles to die without flinching in battle. Some Poles believe that they are fighting on the wrong side, because they have joined the French Army to fight for freedom, not forcing slavery. Some defected to join Haiti.
Dessalines and PÃÆ'Ã… © tion remained allied with France until they switched sides again, in October 1802, and fought against France. Since Leclerc lay dying of yellow fever and heard that Christophe and Dessalines had joined the rebels, he reacted by ordering all blacks living in Le Cap to be killed by drowning in the harbor. In November, Leclerc died of yellow fever, like most of his troops.
His successor, Vicomte de Rochambeau, conducted an even more brutal campaign. Rochambeau campaigned almost genocidally against the Haitians, killing all black people. Rochambeau imports about 15,000 attack dogs from Jamaica, who have been trained to be black barbarians and mulattoes. At Le Cap Bay, Rochambeau drowns blacks. No one will eat fish from the bay for months afterwards, because no one wants to eat fish that have eaten human flesh. Bonaparte, hearing that most of his troops at St. Domingue has died of yellow fever and France only holds Port-au-Prince, Le Cap and Les Cayes sends about 20,000 reinforcements to Rochambeau.
Dessalines matched Rochambeau in his cruel atrocities. At Le Cap, when Rochambeau hung 500 blacks, Dessalines retaliated by killing 500 white men and pressing their heads on nails around Le Cap so that the French could see what he had planned on them. The cruelty of Rochambeau helped raise many former French loyalists to the cause of the rebels. Many of the two sides came to see war as a race war where no mercy was given. The people of Haiti are as brutal as France: they burn French prisoners alive, cut them with an ax, or tie them to the board and saw them in two. After selling the Louisiana Territory to the United States in April 1803, Napoleon lost interest in the failure of his efforts in the Western Hemisphere. He is more concerned about Pran's European enemies
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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