The period from the seizure of Toussaint to the final expulsion of
the French, by Dessalines, in 1803.—State of cultivation.—Commerce
declined—and observations on the population.—Its extent.
THE dispute between the people of the island and the French had now
assumed a different character, for it could no longer be designated a
contest between the revolted slaves of a colony and their government,
but a civil war, originating in an attempt of oppression on the part of
that government, over those inhabitants whom it had thought proper to
declare to be, “free and equal before God, and before the republic.”
A conflict, I say, emanating from the basest act of duplicity, and
from the most unexampled breach of faith and confidence that has been
heard of in modern times; a conflict which, in the sequel, proved the
destruction of its authors, and the expulsion of the French from all
property in St. Domingo. Our minds must be totally divested of all
those impressions which the rebellion of the slaves at first created;
and we must view the future operations of the contending parties
abstractedly, and not as having any connexion with past events.
Whatever might have been the instructions given to the captain-general
Le Clerc by his master, that officer seems to have acted with a degree
of precipitancy that must be condemned. Had the French ruler been ever
so confident in the success of an enterprise as the one in which he had
engaged, as a soldier and as a general who had commanded in a series
of campaigns, he must have left something to the discretion of the
officer whom he had appointed to conduct it, and not have insisted on
an implicit obedience to instructions that could only have been given
from a vague knowledge of the scene on which such enterprise was to be
carried into effect. The success of most offensive operations depends
in a great measure on the local information which a commanding officer
acquires on his arrival at the point at which such operations are to
commence; and a great deal, therefore, must, I imagine, be left to
his judgment and discretion, without fettering him with instructions
from which he cannot deviate, however injudicious and inefficient they
may become, from the local obstacles with which he has to contend.
Bonaparte himself, I believe, never acted but as circumstances pointed
out, paying but little attention to the directions which, from time
to time, he received from the executive government of France. I think
it, therefore, not unfair to draw from this the inference that, on
sending out his brother-in-law, Le Clerc, to command the expedition to
St. Domingo, he vested in him the power to act as circumstances might
require, and as prudence and discretion might dictate.
After the outrage which he committed on the unfortunate Toussaint and
his family, the captain-general began to deliberate on the organization
of a new form of government, and about the end of June, 1802, he
issued his regulations for that purpose; but he had forgotten that
the treacherous conduct, of which he had so recently been guilty,
remained unrevenged, and that the people would not submit to it with
impunity, but resort to measures of retaliation until they had satiated
themselves for the atrocious deed. These regulations had certainly
nothing in them new; they were merely those of Toussaint, re-modelled
as it were, but they were prematurely issued, for they only tended to
inflame the more, and to hasten that crisis which began to threaten the
French cause in the colony.
No sooner was the cruel seizure of Toussaint known, than Dessalines,
Christophe, and Clerveaux flew to arms, collected their scattered
forces, called the cultivators and others to join their standard, to
revenge the outrage committed on their chief, and to defend themselves
against the designs of the French general. In a few days, they found
themselves at the head of a large body of troops, armed and well
equipped, and determined on a most desperate struggle for liberty,
and either to expel the French or perish in the attempt. The French
troops, on the other hand, were hourly diminishing by various diseases
incident to the climate. The officers were dying daily, and others
sunk into an irrecoverable despondency; and a disaffected spirit had
manifested itself amongst them, through which not only the privates
and subaltern officers deserted their standards, but even generals
followed the example. The scenes of carnage and destruction which took
place are said to have shocked humanity, and the atrocities of the
French exceeded so much the executions of their black opponents, that
the latter seem to have entitled themselves to the character of being
merciful when compared with the tortures inflicted by the former.
The circumstance of the introduction of bloodhounds I have heard spoken
of by some who were engaged in the war, and they have all declared that
many of the statements of the cruelties said to have been committed by
them were unfounded. They were brought it is true, but the blacks were
prepared for them; and although in some instances in which they were
tried they tore some persons, and absolutely devoured a child or two,
yet they were found to be ineffectual for the object for which they
were intended, as they were shot in great numbers, so that at last they
had but few to use, and those which were left were rendered useless,
from the negroes having been always prepared to meet them. I do not
mean by this that it at all lessened the enormity of such an act, on
the part of the French, because it was not successful; on the contrary,
the ferocity of it stands unmitigated, although it proved abortive.
In the plains of the Cape, and in the city, the massacres by the French
were beyond the powers of description; and the least that can be said
of the conduct of the agents of the French government is, that they
must have been bereft of all feelings of humanity, that they were of
the worst and most debased of the dregs of the French people, and
unworthy to become the associates of even the untutored savage. The
latter may plead nature for his savage propensities, but the former has
nothing to offer to lessen the magnitude of his crimes, or to efface
the recollection of his unheard-of cruelties.
Whilst these scenes of carnage and destruction were at their height,
the French were daily losing their positions, and their force was
constantly diminishing from the effects of the pestilence which raged
through the whole army. The general-in-chief, who had for some time
been in an impaired state of health, began visibly to sink under the
ravages of disease, and on the 1st of November he breathed his last,
leaving in the memory of his opponents a name blackened by the worst of
crimes, unatoned for by one single virtue.
The command of the army now devolved on General Rochambeau, who, to
say the least of him, was a worthy successor of Le Clerc, and possessed
similar _virtues_. To him, therefore, was it left to pursue that
barbarous policy which had been introduced by his predecessor, and
which only tended to inflame the ardour of the black troops, without in
any way promoting the good of the French cause. Rochambeau certainly
took the command at a time when it must have appeared that the object
of the expedition had failed, and that the prolongation of the contest
would be attended with no favourable result. Opposed to an enemy,
whose force was daily increasing, and whose ardour was unabated and
resolution unshaken, he had but little hopes of accomplishing any thing
beyond acting on the defensive, until such reinforcements should arrive
as would enable him to act on the offensive with some degree of effect;
but, even then, there seemed not the remotest possibility of his being
able to retrieve the positions which had been lost, and place his
forces in such security as might enable him to provide for a retreat,
should subsequent disasters make such an alternative absolutely
necessary.
In the early part of 1803, nothing decisive was done on either side.
Rochambeau and Dessalines came in contact, and a battle ensued, in
which the latter was successful; but the scene of carnage and massacres
which followed is much too painful to admit of being detailed. The
French general, who took about five hundred prisoners, put them all to
death, forgetting or careless of the fate of his own soldiers who were
in the power of his enemy. The latter retaliated; and the next morning
at day break, on as many gibbets, there were exhibited five hundred
French officers and men, sacrificed through the savage impetuosity of
their general.
The war having broken out between England and France in July, a British
squadron appeared off Cape François and blockaded the harbour, thereby
rendering to the blacks a most important service, which in a great
measure contributed to accelerate the expulsion of the French. This
squadron precluded the possibility of the French receiving any supplies
from the Spanish port, and the garrison and inhabitants of the city
were therefore reduced to the most lamentable extremities. Every thing
that could be found, horses, mules, asses, all had been consumed,
and they were at last obliged to feed upon dogs. It is said “that
the French were obliged for several weeks to subsist on those very
bloodhounds, which they had procured for the purpose of hunting down
the negroes.”
The city was at last reduced to the most melancholy state from the
effects of famine and disease, the besiegers making great exertions to
intercept any supplies that might be on their way for the relief of
the besieged. All hopes of eluding the vigilance of his enemies having
at length vanished, and extensive preparations having been made to
take the city by storm, the French commander-in-chief began to see
that there would be a necessity for offering to capitulate. Dessalines
having received these proposals, agreed to them, and the articles were
signed on the 19th of November. These articles were certainly highly
favourable to the French, for they provided for the security of private
property, and that all their sick and wounded should be carefully
attended by the blacks, and afterwards conveyed to France in vessels
bearing a neutral flag. For the evacuation ten days were allowed, and
Rochambeau attempted a ruse de guerre, by which he hoped to evade the
English squadron then blockading the city, but in this he totally
failed. He thought that the strong and stormy winds which prevailed
during the autumnal months, might blow off the English ships, and
enable the French squadron to steal away unperceived; but the English
commodore saw the design of the French general, and consequently
increased his vigilance, and began to provide against the attempt
meditated by the French commander.
Finding that he had been too sanguine, and that it was not possible to
elude the vigilance of the English squadron, Rochambeau was obliged
to enter into terms with the British commodore, to avoid the dreadful
alternative of destruction in the harbour by red-hot shot, with which
he was threatened, from the time agreed upon in the articles having
expired. The force which surrendered consisted of three frigates and
nearly twenty smaller vessels, and prisoners to the number of about
eight thousand men were taken first to Jamaica and afterwards to
England.
Thus ended the war between the French and the blacks in St. Domingo,
and thus an expedition, which at different periods brought out upwards
of forty thousand men, terminated in discomfiture and disgrace;
and which, from the conduct of the respective generals on whom the
command devolved, will ever remain an indelible stain on the military
character of their country. No expedition in the annals of that country
had been fitted out under more favourable and encouraging auspices,
and respecting the success of which a greater interest was excited.
Composed of the finest troops, and under the most experienced officers,
a different termination might have been anticipated; but a mistaken
policy having been pursued, after the moment of victory, the advantages
which had been previously gained were altogether lost, and upon the
victors was entailed the odium of defeat, together with the reproach of
neglect, and the want of precaution and discernment.
The end of December, 1803, therefore beheld the blacks in quiet
possession of the island, after a struggle in which they certainly
exhibited proofs of skill and perseverance in the multifarious duties
of the field, highly creditable to their chiefs who had the planning
of them, and to the inferior leaders on whom devolved the executive
part: and it would be wrong not to express in proper terms, the
admiration called forth by the resistance which they made whenever
they were hard pressed by the French troops. They at times displayed a
great deal of heroism and unshaken courage. Standing on the dead bodies
of their comrades, they were often seen fighting man to man with the
French. Such real determination to protect their liberty was never
contemplated by the French; the colonists, who had been the promoters
of the expedition, always represented the negro character as being
completely deficient in courage, and destitute of every necessary
ingredient for making soldiers. In part this may be true, but examples
of individual bravery among the negro population were not wanting to
negative the first charge; and although the last may be partially
admitted, still time and experience had made them efficient for the
field, and the sequel has sufficiently proved that, at the evacuation
of the island, the negro troops were in a state of discipline but
little inferior to the French, and in point of courage equal. Looking
at them in other respects, and taking into consideration that they were
men, who before, nay even at that time, were in the grossest state of
ignorance and moral degradation, our astonishment is excited, when
we find that in the moment of rage and revenge they often refrained
from acts of cruelty and torture, whilst their insatiable enemies were
committing the most shocking and unfeeling barbarities.
It is fairly to be presumed, that during the war but little time
could be devoted to the cultivation of the soil, and that every thing
relating to it must have been neglected and have dwindled into a very
backward state, and that this was the case I believe is generally
known, for the cultivators were obliged to fly to arms, and were
scarcely ever permitted during the struggles to return to their homes;
the only persons, therefore, who could employ themselves on their
plantations were the females, and such of their children as were too
young to carry arms. But the efforts of these were not of much use, for
such was the destruction which accompanied the movements of the parties
at war, that the estates were laid waste on each side of the line of
march for some miles. Every operation of agriculture was therefore in
a very languid state, and the apprehension under which people laboured
was so great that they thought not of any productions beyond what
they required for their own sustenance: having no inducement to look
forward, they only guarded against present wants.
It is represented by many intelligent persons amongst the people of
colour, and in particular by the late Baron D——, who was secretary
to Christophe, and a man of considerable talent and of the most
unquestionable veracity, that the successors of Toussaint had not that
influence over the cultivators which their predecessor had, and that
neither persuasion nor the expectation of gain could prevail upon them
to return to their agricultural employment: and that immediately after
the war, it would have been impolitic, if not utterly impracticable, to
have enforced it, as any thing like coercion at that moment, when the
minds of the people were in a ferment, might have been attended with
the most disastrous consequences.
Commerce too had also been suspended for the want of articles of
exchange for the manufactures of Europe and the provisions of America,
and during the existence of the struggle foreigners were deterred from
adventuring to any extent, fearing the consequences resulting from such
an unsettled state of things.
Toussaint certainly made great efforts to revive commerce as well as
agriculture, and until he was treacherously seized by the French, he
certainly promoted both to an extent which, when the state of the
country and the agitation of the people are weighed, appears somewhat
surprising, and of which I shall hereafter give a specification. The
system adopted by Toussaint was not dissimilar to that which appears
to prevail in Russia, where the peasantry are attached to the soil,
“adscripti glebæ”; and he acted wisely by doing so on account of his
people, of whose innate love of indolence he was no mean judge, and he
was anxious to remove it, to promote industry and stimulate exertion.
The population of St. Domingo at this period had greatly diminished;
the natural increase had been very small, and the ravages of war had
caused the loss of a great many, besides the emigration which had taken
place under the protection of the French. The entire population in
1802, as estimated by M. Rumboldt, was three hundred and seventy-five
thousand; of which two hundred and ninety thousand were cultivators,
forty-seven thousand seven hundred domestics, sailors, &c. and
thirty-seven thousand three hundred soldiers. By a subsequent statement
of the population of the island in the year 1803, immediately after
the expulsion of the French, and of which a note was given to me by
an individual who was about the person of Dessalines at the time of
his accession to the chief command, the number appears to have been
about three hundred and forty-eight thousand, of which two hundred and
seventy-two thousand were cultivators, thirty-five thousand soldiers,
and the remainder were composed of domestics, artisans, and a few
sailors. The difference between these two statements of twenty-seven
thousand in so short a time appears large, but the destruction of
men must have been very great indeed during that period, from the
extraordinary rancour which existed in the French, and from their
cruel determination to give no quarter, but to pursue a system of
extermination until they had completely destroyed all those who were
inimical to their interest. The emigration to the Spanish part of the
island was also considerable; many fled thither to avert the impending
blow, and to save themselves from the fate which awaited those who had
been wavering in the cause of liberty. The successors of Toussaint they
were aware would visit them with the heaviest penalties, and from the
known ferocity of Dessalines they had to expect but little mercy, his
character among his brethren for barbarity and thirst for blood and
revenge being too well established not to be greatly dreaded.
I shall now proceed to take a short review of the proceedings of the
succeeding chiefs who governed the island after this time. In doing
so, I shall abstain from any reference to military operations, except
in cases where it may be required for the clearer illustration of my
subject.