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Toussaint L’Ouverture and the Haitian slave revolt

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THE American Revolution of 1776 proclaimed that all men have, “inalienable rights”, but the revolutionaries did not extend the same rights to the African slaves. 
Instead, slavery intensified in the southern states.  
During this period, slavery also increased as the colonial states controlled the three Caribbean countries of Saint Domingue (today’s Republic of Haiti), Guadeloupe and Martinique.
These states contained almost as many slaves as the 13 much larger American states.
There were about 700 000 enslaved Africans.  
The profits from slavery made Saint Domingue the richest European colony in the world.  
It was the main source of the sugar and coffee that was much needed in Europe. 
St Domingue provided two-thirds of France’s overseas trade and employed
1 000 ships and 15 000 French sailors.
It played a pivotal role in the French economy.
The colony was also the largest individual market for the African slave trade.
The French slave colonies had a very different social structure from the slave states of the American South. 
The white population in Saint Domingue numbered only 30 000 in 1789 while there were 465 000 black slaves.
This means the black slaves heavily outnumbered both the whites and the free coloureds.
Unlike the United States, in French colonies, many whites had emancipated their mixed-race children, creating a class of ‘free coloureds’ that numbered 28 000 by 1789.  
The free coloureds were often well educated and prosperous.
Some of them owned about one third of the slaves in the colony.  
When the American constitution was going into effect in 1789, a revolution broke out in France.  
Like the American revolutionaries, the French immediately proclaimed that “men are born and remain free and equal in rights”.  
Like white plantation-owners in the American south, slave owners in the French colonies participated actively in the French Revolution.  
They demanded liberty and control of the slaves arguing that the slaves were their subjects.  
The slave owners also denounced the French pro human rights movement, Société des Amis des Noirs and accused it of stirring up the slaves.
After the French revolution, the words of liberty permeated society among the black slaves.
According the French Legislator writing in 1797, “the symbols of freedom were displayed everywhere….The slaves saw the whites fighting among themselves and alienating the mulattoes.  They outnumbered the whites ten to one.  One would have to have a very poor understanding of human nature to think that, in such a situation, the blacks needed any inspiration other than this impulse that is irresistible for all living creatures…” 
The free coloureds, many of whom had been educated in France began resistance against inhuman practices.
They had supporters in the French National Assembly and in the Société des Amis des Noirs.    
In October 1790, Vincent Ogé, a free man, returned to Saint Domingue from France and led an armed uprising.
But he did not have enough support from the slaves.
Sadly, he was defeated and executed.    
San Domingo slaves then mobilised and started resistance against the plantation owners.
In August of 1791 an organised slave rebellion broke out, marking the start of what was to become a 12-year resistance to obtain freedom.
The most outstanding black leader who rose up to lead the slave revolution was François-Dominique Toussaint L’Ouverture born in 1743.
His original name was Toussaint de Bréda.
In 1794, he began to call himself Toussaint Louverture.
Toussaint meant the ‘Opening’ or the ‘Way’. 
Originally a slave, Toussaint had been freed before the Revolution and at one time he owned a small plantation with 15 slaves. 
By 1794, L’Ouverture had built up the best-organised and most effective military unit on the island.           
He became the leader of the Haitian Revolution, a military genius and with political acumen.
George Tyson in his book titled, Toussaint L’Ouverture noted Toussaint’s first public appeal to the people in 1793: “I am Toussaint Louverture.  
“My name is perhaps known to you.  
“I have undertaken to avenge you.  
“I want liberty and equality to reign throughout Saint Domingue.  
“I am working towards that end.  
“Come and join me, brothers, and combat by our side for the same cause.”
Garran-Coulon, Rapport sur les Troubles de Saint-Domingue, described Toussaint in 1801: “Toussaint, at the head of his army, is the most active and indefatigable man of whom we can form an idea.  
“His great sobriety, the faculty, which none but he possesses, of never reposing, the facility with which he resumes the affairs of the cabinet after most tiresome excursions,… render him so superior to all those around him that their respect and submission are in most individuals carried even to fanaticism….”
The British then tried to capture St Domingue and they failed with disastrous results.
Historical records show that, “of the more than 20 000 British soldiers sent to St Domingue during five years of fighting, over 60 percent died during the conflict. “Some of the surviving officers returned home as abolitionists.”
In the end, Toussaint conducted secret negotiations with the British.  
In humiliation, the British troops withdrew in 1798 after the black men proved to have more superior power than the British officers.        
In late 1801, however, Britain and France made peace.  
Napoleon immediately began preparations to send military forces to regain control of Saint Domingue and France’s other Caribbean colonies.  
This resulted in the establishment of Martinique, where slavery had never been abolished and Guadeloupe, where a lot of bloodshed had occurred when suppressing slave revolts in 1802.    
The French military expedition to Saint Domingue was commanded by General Leclerc who occupied Saint Domingue.
Toussaint was arrested by the French in June 1802.
He was later taken to France, where he died in prison in 1803.
The circumstances of this death are unknown. 
Toussaint Louverture was a legend.
He remains in history as the leader of history’s largest slave revolt that transformed the French colony of St Domingue into the independent country of Haiti.
Because of his efforts, Haiti became the first former European colony where Africans succeeded in overturning slavery and racial inequality.  
Memories of the Haitian Revolution have continued to inspire and influence movements for liberation for the past two centuries.
The Haitian Revolution is the only successful slave revolt in history resulting in the establishment of Haiti, the first independent black state in the New World.

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