Toussaint Louverture Totally Explained

Everything about Toussaint Louverture totally explained

François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture, also Toussaint Bréda, Toussaint-Louverture (born 20 May 1743 - died April 8, 1803) was an important leader of the Haitian Revolution. Born a slave in Saint-Domingue, in a long struggle for independence, he led enslaved Africans to victory over Europeans, abolished slavery, and secured native control over the colony in 1797 while nominally governor of the colony. He expelled the French commissioner Léger-Félicité Sonthonax, as well as the British armies; invaded Santo Domingo to free the slaves there; and wrote a constitution naming himself governor for life that established a new polity for the colony.
Between the years 1800 and 1802, Toussaint Louverture tried to rebuild the collapsed economy of Haiti and reestablish commercial contacts with the United States and Great Britain. His rule permitted the colony a taste of freedom which, after his death in exile, was gradually destroyed during the successive reigns of a series of despots. His name, translated from French, would mean "all the saints awakening."

Overview

Toussaint Louverture was born a slave in the Plaine du Nord of what was then Saint-Domingue. He was born on the Bréda plantation of Bayon de Libertat, near Cap Français. Tradition says that his father was an African named Gaou-Guinou and probably a member of the Arrada tribe. Toussaint Breda was lucky enough to be educated and read widely in French literature of the Enlightenment. He worked as a domestic and carriage driver on the plantation. His master freed him at age 33, when Toussaint married. He was a fervent Catholic, and a member of high degree of the Masonic Lodge of Saint-Domingue. As unrest shook Saint-Domingue's institutions, Toussaint joined the Spanish army of Santo Domingo. He was able to organize 4,000 blacks into a band of loyal guerrilla troops, as he was a gifted, although untrained, military leader. When the French Legislative Assembly decreed full equality to all Haitians on April 4, 1792, Toussaint switched his loyalty to the French and fought against the Spanish.
   He was also successful in leading his relatively small band of guerrilla troops against an army of 10,000 strong British soldiers. By 1795, Toussaint controlled most of two provinces. His two lieutenants Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Henry Christophe were extremely effective. Toussaint's success drove André Rigaud, a man of color, to renew his attacks from the southern part of the island, where free people of color were concentrated in Port au Prince. Rigaud controlled a force of officers of color and black troops, who contained the South.
   By June 1795, the British had been driven back to the coast. In July the Spanish officially withdrew and ceded the eastern two-thirds of the island to the French. This included their former colony of Santo Domingo. Although the British continued to fight, Toussaint maintained his control over the North and West of Saint-Domingue.
   In 1798, the British made a last-ditch attempt to oust Louverture from the South, sending General Thomas Maitland. Maitland failed and signed a secret treaty to make Toussaint an independent ruler. The British left Saint-Domingue completely in October 1798, leaving Rigaud, Alexander Pétion, and Toussaint to fight against each other for control.. He exploited openings in the defenses of the opposition. Later that year, the British gained control of most of the coastal settlements of Saint-Domingue, including Port-au-Prince.
   Toussaint Louverture's victories in the North of Saint-Domingue, together with independent successes by people of color in the South and British occupation of the coasts, brought the French close to disaster. In 1793, Léger-Félicité Sonthonax and Étienne Polvèrel, representatives of the French revolutionary government in Paris, offered freedom to slaves who would join them as they struggled to defeat counter-revolutionaries and fight the foreign invaders. On February 4, 1794, the largely Jacobin National Convention in Paris confirmed the orders of emancipation, which abolished slavery in all territories of the French Republic. In May of 1794, Toussaint Louverture decided to ally with the French, justifying his decision by the failures of Spain and Britain to free the slaves. He declared that he'd become a republican.
   Toussaint Louverture has been criticized for such treatment of his former allies, as well as for mass slaughter of Spaniards. Toussaint Louverture’s switch was decisive. The governor of Saint-Domingue, Étienne Laveaux, made Toussaint Louverture Général de Brigade; the British suffered severe reverses; and the Spaniards were expelled. Under Toussaint Louverture's increasingly influential leadership, the French army of black, mixed-race, and white soldiers defeated the British and Spanish forces. Toussaint Louverture's army won seven battles in one week against the British forces in January of 1794. He also fought against the uprising of Pinchinat, a leader of color.

Campaign in support of the French Revolution

By 1795, Toussaint Louverture was widely renowned. He was revered by the blacks and appreciated by most whites and people of color for helping restore the economy of Saint-Domingue. He allowed many émigré planters to return and used military discipline to force former slaves to work as laborers. He believed that people were naturally corrupt and that compulsion was needed to prevent idleness. He no longer permitted the laborers to be whipped. They were legally free and equal, and they shared the profits of the restored plantations. Racial tensions eased because Toussaint preached reconciliation and believed that for the blacks, a majority of whom were native Africans, there were lessons to be learned from whites and Europeanized people of color.
   The French governor Laveaux left Saint-Domingue in 1796. He was succeeded by Léger-Félicité Sonthonax, an extremist French commissioner, who allowed Toussaint Louverture to effectively rule and promoted him to Général de Division. But Toussaint was repelled by this radical's proposals to exterminate the Europeans. He found Sonthonax's atheism, coarseness, and immorality offensive. After some maneuvering, Toussaint Louverture forced Sonthonax out in 1797.
   Next to go were the British, whose losses caused them to negotiate secretly with Toussaint Louverture. Treaties in 1798 and 1799 secured their complete withdrawal. Toussaint Louverture promoted lucrative trade with Great Britain and the United States. In return for arms and goods, Toussaint Louverture sold sugar and promised not to invade Jamaica and the American South. The British offered to recognize him as king of an independent Saint-Domingue. Distrusting the British because they maintained slavery, he refused. The British withdrew from Saint-Domingue in 1798.
   Toussaint Louverture soon rid himself of another nominal French superior, Gabriel Hédouville, who arrived in 1798 as representative of the Directoire government of France. Aware that France had no chance of restoring colonialism as long as the war with Great Britain continued, Hédouville tried to pit Toussaint Louverture against André Rigaud, the leader of color who ruled a semi-independent state in the South. Toussaint Louverture, however, figured out his purpose and forced Hédouville to flee. Hédouville was succeeded by Philippe Roume, who deferred to the black governor. Toussaint Louverture eliminated Rigaud by a bloody campaign in October 1799 that forced him to flee to France. His state led by people of color was conquered. Jean-Jacques Dessalines carried out a purge in the South so brutal that reconciliation with people of color was impossible.
   On May 22, 1799, Toussaint Louverture signed a trading treaty with the British and the Americans. In the United States, Alexander Hamilton was a strong supporter. However, after Thomas Jefferson became President in 1801, he reversed the friendly American policy.
   Once he'd control over all of Saint-Domingue, Toussaint Louverture turned to Spanish Santo Domingo, where slavery persisted. Ignoring the commands of Napoleon Bonaparte, who had become first consul of France, Toussaint Louverture overran the Spanish settlement in January 1801, officially took control on the 24th, and freed the slaves. Toussaint Louverture drafted a committee to write a constitution for the colony. This took effect on July 7, 1801 and established his own authority across the whole island of Hispaniola.

Leclerc's campaign and Louverture's captivity

In command of the entire island, Toussaint Louverture dictated a constitution that made him governor-general for life with near absolute powers. Catholicism was made the state religion, and many revolutionary principles received ostensible sanction. There was no provision for officials from France; however, as Toussaint Louverture professed himself a Frenchman and strove to convince Bonaparte of his loyalty. He wrote to Napoleon, "From the First of the Blacks to the First of the Whites." Bonaparte confirmed Toussaint Louverture’s position but considered him an obstacle to the restoration of Saint-Domingue as a profitable colony.
Denying that he was trying to reinstate slavery, Napoleon sent his brother-in-law Charles Leclerc to regain French control of the island in 1802. Leclerc landed on the island on January 20 and moved against Toussaint Louverture. Over the following months, Toussaint Louverture's troops fought against the French; but some of his officers defected to join Leclerc, and others joined chief black leaders like Dessalines and Christophe. On May 7, 1802, Toussaint Louverture signed a treaty with the French in Cap-Haïtien, with the condition that there would be no return to slavery
He retired to his farm in Ennery. After three weeks, Leclerc sent troops to seize Toussaint Louverture and his family and shipped them to France on a warship, as he suspected the former leader of plotting an uprising. They reached France on July 2. On August 25, 1802, Toussaint Louverture was sent to the castle Fort-de-Joux in Doubs. He was confined there and interrogated repeatedly. He died of pneumonia in April of 1803. A plaque in his memory can be found in the Panthéon in Paris.

Historical significance

Toussaint Louverture played a key role in what was the first successful attempt by a subject slave population to throw off the yoke of Western colonialism. He defeated armies of three imperial powers: Spain, France, and Great Britain. The success of the Haitian Revolution had enduring effects on the institution of slavery throughout the New World. Haiti became the second independent republic in the Western Hemisphere.
After being captured by the French general Leclerc, on the ship to France Toussaint Louverture warned his captors that the rebels wouldn't not make his mistake in the following words:" [B]y overthrowing me you've killed only the trunk of the tree of liberty of the black people, it'll grow back by the roots cause they're deep and numerous."

Cultural references

English poet William Wordsworth published his sonnet "To Toussaint L'Ouverture" in January 1803.
Alphonse de Lamartine, a preeminent French poet and statesman of the early 19th century, wrote a verse play about Toussaint entitled Toussaint Louverture: un poeme dramatique en cinq actes (1850).
In 1936, Trinidadian historian C. L. R. James wrote a play entitled Toussaint Louverture (later revised and retitled The Black Jacobins), which was performed at the Westminster Theatre in London and starred actors including Paul Robeson (in the title role), Robert Adams and Orlando Martins.
In 1938 CLR James also wrote: The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution. This book is considered a seminal work on Louverture and the revolution.
In 1938, American artist Jacob Lawrence created a series of paintings about the life of Toussaint Louverture, which he later adapted into a series of prints.
The American film Lydia Bailey (1952, based on a novel by Kenneth Roberts, and directed by Jean Negulesco) is set during the Haitian Revolution. Toussaint is portrayed by the actor Ken Renard.
Danny Glover is directing Toussaint, a film adaptation of Toussaint's life starring Don Cheadle. The film began production in July 2007 and should be released in 2009.
In Frank Webb's novel, The Garies and their Friends, Toussaint's portrait is a source of inspiration for the real estate tycoon Mr. Walters.
1971 album 'Santana (III)' features a song (almost an instrumental; lyrics are minimal) titled "Toussaint L'Overture". There is a live instrumental version on the 1998 CD re-issue of Abraxas by Santana.

Footnotes

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