Read Toussaint Louverture Online
Authors: Madison Smartt Bell
The Duvalier dynasty in Haiti, the most stable and also the most thoroughly repressive government Haiti has known since independence, associated itself with the violent authoritarianism of Jean-Jacques Dessalines. When Jean-Bertrand Aristide came to Haiti's presidency in 1990, on the crest of a wave of democratizing populism that many Haitians called the “Second Revolution,” he seemed to want to identify himself with the more conciliatory figure of Toussaint Louverture. In the beginning, the implied Aristide-Louverture comparison was subliminally subtle, but during the Haitian Revolution's bicentennial year of 2004, when Aristide was forced from office and the country by a United States—assisted coup d'etat, he quoted— verbatim—the words Toussaint had famously spoken when he was arrested and deported by the French in 1802.
For two centuries, historians, biographers, playwrights, novelists, and even politicians have constructed whatever Toussaint Louverture they require. Almost always it is an extreme Toussaint: either a vicious, duplicitous, Machiavellian figure who not only destroyed France's richest colony in an (inevitable) regression to African savagery but also laid the foundation of the most authoritarian and repressive elements in the Haitian state which came after him, or a military and political genius, autodidact and self-made man, a wise and good humanitarian who not only led his people to freedom but also envisioned and briefly created a society based on racial harmony, at least two hundred years ahead of its
time. The latter figure is found in twentieth-century English biographies by Ralph Korngold and Wenda Parkinson, who, like Colonel Vincent two centuries previously, admire, defend, and advocate for Toussaint. By the usual extreme contrast, the oft-revised and updated biography by the French scholar Pierre Pluchon, while almost certainly the best-documented work of its kind, seems to take its attitude toward Toussaint unadulterated from the hostile, cynical report of General Kerverseau.
To pierce this cloud of contradictions one would like to return to the man himself, but it is difficult to do. Famously elusive in real life, Toussaint Louverture is no less elusive to the historian and biographer. The fictionalizing of his character is encouraged by the fact that during the first fifty years of his life, Toussaint walked so very softly that he left next to no visible tracks at all.
*
My double authority holds everything in balance:
Governor for the white, Spartacus for the freedman,
All yields and flourishes under my uncertain reign.
I remain as undecided as destiny
Sure that liberty seeding itself in these ruins
Furrows, while waiting, its immortal roots.
1.
Lacroix, p. 244.
2.
Scharon, vol. 2, p. 102.
1.
Phillips, p. 21.
1.
Schoelcher, p. 94; Dubois, p. 176.
2.
Schoelcher, p. 389.
3.
Private collection of Gerard Barthelemy.
4.
Private collection of Gerard Barthelemy: letter from Toussaint to Don Garcia, 20 March 1794.
5.
Private collection of Gerard Barthelemy.
6.
Yves Benot, “Sources et documents sur l'insurrection des esclaves
de Saint Domingue,”
Annales historique de la revolution Francaise,
no
· 339 (January-March 2005).
7.
Fick, p. 113.
8.
Dubois, p. 126.
9.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 1, p. 62.
10.
Gros, p. 40.
11.
Gros, p. 44.
12.
Gros, p. 47.
13.
Gros, p. 45.
14.
Gros, p. 46.
15.
Dorsinville, p. 44.
16.
Dorsinville, p. 44.
17.
Private collection of Gerard Barthelemy.
18.
Pluchon,
Un revolutionnaire noir,
p.
JJ.
19.
Laurent, pp. 68-72.
20.
Dubois, p. 142.
21.
Dubois, p. 144.
22.
Pluchon,
Un revolutionnaire noir,
p. 79.
23.
Stein, p. 70.
24.
Stein, p. 75.
25.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, p. 108.
26.
Dubois, p. 160.
27.
Parkinson, p. 70.
28.
Schoelcher, p. 93.
1.
Metral, p. 325.
2.
Metral, p. 326.
3.
Sannon, vol. 1, p. 1.
4.
Metral, p. 326.
5.
Dubois, p. 57.
6.
Schoelcher, p. 388.
7.
Private collection of Gerard Barthelemy.
8.
Barthelemy, “Qui etes-vous,” p. 1.
9.
Barthelemy, “Qui etes-vous,” p. 2.
10.
Moreau de Saint-Mery
Description topographique, physique, civile, politique et historique de lapartie francaise de I'ile Saint-Domingue
(Paris: Societe Francaise d'Histoire d'Outre-Mer, 1984), vol. 2, p. 580.
11.
Private collection of Gerard Barthelemy: Bayon de Libertat to Comte de Breda, 6 August 1773.
12.
Private collection of Gerard Barthelemy: Bayon to Breda, 18 August 1773.
13.
Private collection of Gerard Barthelemy: Delribal to Breda, 18 October 1773.
14.
Private collection of Gerard Barthelemy: Delribal to Breda, 18 October 1773.
15.
Private collection of Gerard Barthelemy: Bayon to Breda, 23 February 1774.
16.
Private collection of Gerard Barthelemy: Bayon to Breda, 23 November 1773.
17.
Barthelemy, “Qui etes-vous”; Schoelcher, p. 391.
18.
Saint-Remy p. 90.
19.
Fouchard, Debien, and Menier, p. 68.
20.
Fouchard, Debien, and Menier, p. 79.
21.
Barthelemy, “Noirs libres,” p. 1.
22.
Barthelemy, “Noirs libres,” p. 23.
23.
Cauna, p. 189.
24.
Private collection of Gerard Barthelemy: Bayon to Breda, 28 May 1794·
25.
Cauna, p. 191.
26.
Cauna, p. 191.
27.
Pluchon,
Un revolutionnaire noir,
p. 203.
28.
Cauna, p. 194.
29.
Cauna, p. 195.
30.
Cauna, p. 196.
31.
Pluchon,
Toussaint Louverture d'apres le general,
p. 20.
1.
Pluchon,
Un revolutionnaire noir,
p. 94.
2.
Pluchon,
Un revolutionnaire noir,
p. 95.
3.
Pluchon,
Un revolutionnaire noir,
p. 95.
4.
Private collection of Gerard Barthelemy; Laurent, p. 95.
5.
Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris, Fonds Francais 1204, vol. 3, piece 458.
6.
Metral, p. 328.
7.
Metral, p. 331.
8.
Metral, p. 331.
9.
Schoelcher, p. 93.
10.
Madiou, vol. 1, p. 182.
11.
Schoelcher, p. 97.
12.
Geggus,
Sfavery, War and Revolution,
p. 108.
13.
Lacroix, p. 186.
14.
Madiou, vol. 1, p. 255.
15.
Dubois, p. 170.
16.
Pluchon,
Un revolutionnaire noir,
p. 105.
17.
Sannon, vol. 1, p. 138; Arch. Nat. #124.
18.
Sannon, vol. 1, p. 139.
19.
Geggus,
Haitian Revolutionary Studies,
p. 121.
20.
Pluchon,
Un revolutionnaire noir,
p. 103.
21.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 1, p. 155.
22.
Geggus,
Haitian Revolutionary Studies,
p. 136.
23.
Geggus,
Haitian Revolutionary Studies,
p. 136.
24.
Laurent, p. 105.
25.
Laurent, p. 113.
26.
Laurent, p. 114.
27.
Laurent, p. 119.
28.
Laurent, p. 120.
29.
Laurent, p. 123.
30.
Laurent, p. 131.
31.
Laurent, p. 134.
32.
Laurent, p. 134.
33.
Laurent, p. 135.
34.
Laurent, p. 135.
35.
Laurent, p. 138.
36.
Laurent, p. 138.
37.
Ott, p. 84.
38.
Schoelcher, p. 144.
39.
Laurent, p. 253.
40.
Laurent, p. 254.
41.
Laurent, p. 163.
42.
Schoelcher, p. 137.
43.
Schoelcher, p. 138.
44.
Madiou, vol. 1, p. 244.
45.
Laurent, p. 310.
46.
Laurent, p. 311.
47.
Laurent, p. 313.
48.
Laurent, p. 314.
49.
Laurent, p. 315.
50.
Laurent, p. 315.
51.
Laurent, p. 316.
52.
Laurent, p. 316.
53.
Laurent, p. 317.
54.
Laurent, p. 317.
55.
Laurent, p. 319.
56.
Laurent, p. 320.
57.
Laurent, p. 323.
58.
Laurent, p. 323.
59.
Laurent, p. 324.
60.
Laurent, p. 324.
61.
Laurent, p. 325.
62.
Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris, Fonds Francais 1204, vol. 3, piece 86 (22 February 1796).
63.
Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris, Fonds Francais 1204, vol. 3, piece 86 (22 February 1796); Laurent, p. 334.
64.
Laurent, p. 307.
65.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, p. 215.
66.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, p. 232.
67.
Schoelcher, p. 172.
68.
Schoelcher, p. 171.
69.
Schoelcher, p. 172.
1.
Schoelcher, p. 172.
2.
Stein, p. 133.
3.
Laurent, p. 185.
4.
Laurent, pp. 380-81.
5.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 1, p. 227.
6.
Laurent, p. 382.
7.
Stein, p. 159.
8.
Laurent, p. 394.
9.
Madiou, vol. 1, p. 317.
10.
Madiou, vol. 1, p. 317.
11.
Madiou, vol. 1, p. 360.
12.
Schoelcher, p. 219.
13.
Laurent, p. 423.
14.
Stein, p. 162.
15.
Stein, p. 162.
16.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 1, p. 281.
17.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 1, p. 285.
18.
Private collection of Gerard Barthelemy
19.
Scharon, vol. 2, p. 94.
20.
Scharon, vol. 2, p. 95.
21.
Scharon, vol. 2, p. 97.
22.
Scharon, vol. 2, p. 100.
23.
Pluchon,
Toussaint Louverture d'apres le general,
p. 26.
24.
Pluchon,
Un revolutionnaire noir,
p. 193.
25.
Pluchon,
Un revolutionnaire noir,
p. 203.
26.
Pluchon,
Un revolutionnaire noir,
p. 180.
27.
Pluchon,
Un revolutionnaire noir,
p. 178.
28.
Pluchon,
Un revolutionnaire noir,
p. 181.
29.
Scharon, vol. 2, pp. 103-104.
30.
Laurent, p. 442.
31.
Pluchon,
Un revolutionnaire noir,
p. 202.
32.
Cesaire, p. 249.
33.
Pluchon,
Un revolutionnaire noir,
p. 213.
34.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 1, p. 317.
35.
James, p. 205; Schoelcher, p. 229.
36.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 1, p. 320.
37.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 2, p. 19.
38.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 2, p. 22.
39.
Lacroix, p. 210.
40.
Lacroix, p. 210.
41.
Lacroix, p. 216.
42.
Pluchon,
Un revolutionnaire noir,
p. 227.
43.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 2, p. 30.
44.
Schoelcher, p. 382.
45.
Dubois, p. 225.
46.
Schoelcher, p. 239.
47.
Laurent, p. 456.
48.
Laurent, p. 461.
49.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 2, p. 170.
50.
Brown, p. 129.
51.
Archives Nationales de France, Colonies F3 59, pp. 205ff. (Vincent, “Notes sur un grand nombre d'hommes civils et militaires, actuellement dans la colonie de St-Domingue”).
52.
Brown, p. 137.
53.
Brown, p. 141.
54.
Brown, p. 138.
55.
Brown, p. 148.
56.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 2, p. 59.
57.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 2, p. 68.
58.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 2, p. 80.
59.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 2, p. 71.
60.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 2, p. 87.
61.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 2, p. 113.
62.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 2, p. 113.
63.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 2, p. 101.
64.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 2, p. 104.
65.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 2, p. 128.
66.
Private collection of Gerard Barthelemy.
67.
Private collection of Gerard Barthelemy.
68.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 2, p. 150.
69.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 2, p. 152.
70.
Archives Nationales de France, Colonies F3 59 pp. 183ff (Vincent to Leclerc, 27 Brumaire, year 10).
71.
Pluchon,
Un revolutionnaire noir,
p. 323.
72.
Lacroix, p. 238.
73.
Lacroix, p. 217.
74.
Cesaire, p. 262.
75.
Lacroix, p. 217.
76.
Archives Nationales de France, Colonies F3 59 p. 190. (Vincent to Leclerc, 29 Brumaire, year 10).
77.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 2, p. 172.
78.
Pluchon,
Un revolutionnaire noir,
p. 614.
79.
Pluchon,
Un revolutionnaire noir,
p. 289.
80.
Pluchon,
Un revolutionnaire noir,
p. 263.
81.
Private collection of Gerard Barthelemy.
82.
Private collection of Gerard Barthelemy.
83.
Private collection of Gerard Barthelemy.
84.
Pluchon,
Un revolutionnaire noir,
p. 293.
85.
Lacroix, p. 259.
86.
Lacroix, p. 259.
1.
Lacroix, p. 243.
2.
Lacroix, p. 243.
3.
Lacroix, p. 242.
4.
Lacroix, p. 238.
5.
Lacroix, p. 245.
6.
Lacroix, p. 245; James, p. 262.
7.
Lacroix, p. 245.
8.
Lacroix, p. 246.
9.
Lacroix, p. 243.
10.
Lacroix, p. 237.
11.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 2, p. 228.
12.
Schoelcher, p. 387.
13.
Lacroix, p. 304.
14.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 2, p. 127.
15.
Lacroix, p. 240.
16.
Pluchon,
Un revolutionnaire noir, p.
419.
17.
Mo'ise, p. 74.
18.
Mo'ise, p. 46.
19.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 2, p. 104.
20.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 2, p. 214.
21.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 2, p. 214.
22.
Pluchon,
Un revolutionnaire noir, p.
241.
23.
Pluchon,
Un revolutionnaire noir, p.
253.
24.
Mo'ise, p. 49.
25.
Pelage-Marie Duboys, vol. 2, p. 218.
26.
Mo'ise, p. 72.
27.
Mo'ise, p. 74.
28.
Mo'ise, p.
j6.
29.
Moise, p. 77.
30.
Mo'ise, p. 77.
31.
Dubois, p. 242.
32.
Lacroix, p. 260.
33.
Lacroix, p. 261.
34.
Archives Nationales de France, Colonies F3 59, p. 161 (Vincent letter to Toussaint, 19 Thermidor, year 9).