the planters had called in the aid of the English, and that four
thousand negroes had risen in insurrection. He exerted his great
influence with his fellow-slaves to prevent the destruction of houses
and cane-fields on the Breda estate. For a month, he kept the insurgents
at bay, while he helped M. Bayou de Libertas to convey a cargo of sugar
on board a Baltimore ship, for the support of his family, and aided his
mistress to collect such articles of value as could conveniently be
carried away. Then he secretly conveyed them to the same ship; and it
was an inexpressible relief to his heart when he saw them sailing away,
bound for the shores of the United States.
The armed negroes increased in numbers, and marshalled themselves under
an intelligent leader named Jean Francois. When the French governor in
St. Domingo called upon them to lay down their arms, their leaders
replied for them: "We have never thought of failing in the respect and
duty we owe to the representatives of the King of France. The king has
bewailed our lot and broken our chains. But those who should have proved
fathers to us have been tyrants, monsters, unworthy the fruits of our
labors. Do you ask the sheep to throw themselves into the jaws of the
wolf? To prove to you, excellent sir, that we are not so cruel as you
may think, we assure you that we wish for peace with all our souls; but
on condition that all the whites, without a single exception, leave the
Cape. Let them carry with them their gold and their jewels. All we seek
is our liberty. God grant that we may obtain it without shedding of
blood. Believe us, it has cost our feelings very much to have taken this
course. But victory, or death for freedom, is our profession of faith;
and we will maintain it to the last drop of our blood."
The negroes were mistaken in supposing that Louis XVI., king of France,
had broken their chains, or that the king's party, called Royalists,
were trying to do anything for their freedom. It was the revolutionary
party in France, called Republicans, who had declared themselves in
favor of emancipating the negro slaves, and giving the free mulattoes
their civil rights. The main body of the negroes had been kept in the
lowest ignorance, and of course could not understand the state of
political parties. The world was ringing with French doctrines of
liberty and equality, to be applied to men of all colors; and they could
not help hearing something of what was so universally talked of. The
Spaniards in the eastern part of St. Domingo were allies of the French
king, and they wanted the negroes to help them fight the French
planters, who were in rebellion against the king. In order to give them
a strong motive for doing so, they told them that Louis XVI. had been
cast into prison in France, and that they were going to kill him,
because he wanted to emancipate the slaves in his colonies. They readily
believed that it was so, because they saw their masters in arms against
the king. Therefore they called their regiments "The King's Own," and
carried flags on which were inscribed, "Long live the King," "The
Ancient System of Government."
The slaveholders mounted the English cockade, and entered into alliance
with Great Britain, while their revolted slaves joined the Spanish. The
war raged horribly on both sides. Jean Francois was of a gentle
disposition, and disposed to be merciful; but the two other leaders of
the negroes, named Jeannot and Biassou, were monsters of revenge and
cruelty. The bleeding heads of white men surrounded their camps, and the
bodies of black men hung on trees round the camps of the planters.
This state of things shocked the soul of Toussaint Breda. Much as he
desired the freedom of his own race, he was reluctant to join an
enterprise marked by so many cruelties. Conscience forbade him to enlist
on the side of the slaveholders, and he would gladly have remained
neutral; but he found that men of his own color were suspicious of him,
because he had adhered so faithfully to M. Bayou de Libertas. He joined
the black insurgents; but, resolved not to take part in their
barbarities, he occupied himself with healing the wounded,--an office
for which he was well qualified by his tender disposition and knowledge
of medicinal plants.
After a while, however, the negroes were compelled to retreat before the
superior discipline of the white troops; and feeling greatly the need of
intelligent officers, they insisted upon making Toussaint aide-de-camp
to Biassou, under the title of Brigadier. He desired, above all things,
that hostilities should cease, that the negroes should return to their
work, and that the planters should consent to cease from oppressing
them. A very little justice and kindness would have pacified the
revolted slaves; but the slaveholders were so full of rage and pride,
that if a slave attempted to return to his master, however sincere he
might be, he was instantly put to death. Three commissioners came from
France to try to negotiate a peace between the contending parties. The
blacks sent deputies to the Colonial Assembly to help the French
commissioners in this good work; but the planters treated their
overtures with haughtiness and contempt.
It is said that Toussaint wept when he saw the hopes of peace vanish.
It was plain that his people must resist their tyrants, or be forever
hopelessly crushed. He was then fifty years old, in the prime of his
bodily and mental strength. By becoming a leader he felt that he might
protect the ignorant masses, and restrain those who were disposed to
cruelty. Perhaps he remembered the prediction of the Abbe Raynal, and
thought that he was the appointed deliverer,--a second Moses, sent by
God to bring his people out of bondage. From that time henceforth he
made it the business of his life to conquer freedom for his race; but
never in a bloodthirsty spirit.
Biassou was so enraged by the contemptuous manner in which their
deputies had been treated, that he gave orders to put to death all the
white prisoners in their camps. But Toussaint remonstrated, and
succeeded in saving their lives. His superior intelligence gave him
great influence, and he always exerted it on the side of humanity. He
also manifested extraordinary courage and sagacity in the very difficult
position in which he was placed. He was surrounded by conflicting
parties, fighting against each other, agreeing only in one thing, and
that was hostility to the negroes; all of them ready to make the fairest
promises, and to break them as soon as they had gained their object.
France was in a state of revolutionary confusion, and rumors were very
contradictory. One thing was certain,--their former masters were
fighting against the king of France; and instinct led them to take the
other side. Toussaint deemed it wisest to keep under the protection of
their Spanish allies, and fight with them for the king's party. By a
succession of battles, he gained possession of several districts in the
mountains, where he entrenched his forces strongly, and tried to bring
them under regular military discipline. He was very strict, and allowed
no disobedience of orders. He forbade his soldiers to go about
plundering, or revenging past injuries. His motto was, "No
Retaliation,"--a noble, Christian motto, totally disregarded by men
whose opportunities for enlightened education were a thousand times
greater than his. When he felt himself secure in the mountain districts,
he invited the white planters of that region to return and cultivate the
estates which they had abandoned in their terror. He promised them that
their persons and property should be protected; and he faithfully kept
his word. In his language and in his actions he was always saying to the
whites, "Why will you force us to fight? I cherish no revenge against
you. All I want is the freedom of my race." His energy and ingenuity in
availing himself of every resource and supplying every deficiency were
truly wonderful. On one occasion a map was greatly needed, in order to
plan some important campaign, and no map could be procured. Toussaint,
having made diligent inquiries of various persons well acquainted with
the portion of country to be traversed, employed himself in making a
map. By help of the little geometry taught him by his godfather, he
projected a map, and marked down the important towns, mountains, and
rivers, with the distances between them.
No trait in the character of Toussaint Breda was stronger than his
domestic affections. He was devotedly attached to his wife and children,
and he had not seen them for seven months. At last an interval of quiet
enabled him to visit the Spanish part of the island, whither he had sent
them for security. The Spanish authorities, in acknowledgment of his
services, received him with the greatest distinction. Toussaint thanked
them, but humbly ascribed his successes to a superintending Providence.
Always strict in religious observances, he went to the church to offer
prayers. His general, the Spanish Marquis Hermona, seeing him kneel to
partake of the communion, said: "In this lower world God visits no purer
soul than his."
But the Spaniards had no regard for the rights and welfare of the
negroes. They used them while they had need of their help, and were
ready to oppress them when it served their own interests. News came from
France that the Republican party were triumphant, and that the king had
been beheaded. The Spanish had nothing further to gain by adhering to
the defeated Royalist party. Accordingly, Spain and Great Britain
entered into a league to divide the island of St. Domingo between them,
and restore Slavery. On the contrary, the Republican party in France,
assembled in convention at Paris, February, 1794, proclaimed freedom to
the slaves in all the French colonies; and as the government was now in
their hands, there was no doubt of their having power to protect those
they had emancipated. Under these circumstances, there was but one
course for Toussaint to take. He left the Spanish and joined the French
forces, by whom he was received with acclamation. His rude bands of
untaught negroes had now become a well-disciplined army. They were proud
of their commander, and almost worshipped him. Under his guidance, they
performed wonders, proving themselves equal to any troops in the world.
Toussaint was on horseback night and day. It seemed as if he never
slept. Wherever he was needed, he suddenly appeared; and as he seemed to
be wanted in twenty places at once, his followers thought he had some
powers of witchcraft to help him. But the witchcraft consisted in his
superior intelligence, his remarkable activity, his iron constitution,
and his iron will. His heart was never of iron. In the midst of constant
warfare he paid careful attention to the raising of crops; and if women
and children, black or white, were suffering with hunger, he caused them
to be supplied with food. He and his brave officers and troops
everywhere drove the English before them. The French general Laveaux
appointed him second to himself in command; and, in his proclamation to
that effect, he declared: "This is the man whom the Abbe Raynal foretold
would rise to be the liberator of his oppressed race."
One day, when he had gained some important advantage, a white officer
exclaimed, "General Toussaint makes an opening everywhere." His black
troops heard the words, and feeling that he had made an opening for
_them_, from the dungeon of Slavery to the sunlight of Freedom, they
shouted, "_L'Ouverture_," "_L'Ouverture_"; which, being translated into
English, means The Opening. From that day henceforth he was called
Toussaint l'Ouverture.
The English general Maitland, finding him so formidable, wished to have
a conference with him to negotiate terms of accommodation. The request
was granted; and such was his confidence in the black chieftain that he
went to his camp with only three attendants, through miles of country
full of armed negroes. One of the French officers wrote to General
Toussaint that it would be an excellent opportunity to take the English
commander prisoner. General Maitland was informed of this while he was
on his way; but he said, "I will trust General Toussaint. He never
breaks his promise." When he arrived, General Toussaint handed him two
letters, saying, "There is a letter I have received, advising me to
detain you as prisoner; and there is my reply. I wish you to read them
before we proceed to business, that you may know I am incapable of such
a base action." The answer he had written was, "I have promised this
Englishman my protection, and he shall have it."
The English, seeing little prospect of conquering him by force, or
outwitting him by stratagem, tried to bribe him to their interest. They
offered to make him king of St. Domingo, to establish him with a
sufficient naval force, and give freedom to the blacks, if he would come
over to their side. But the English still held slaves in the neighboring
islands, while the French had proclaimed emancipation in all their
colonies. He felt grateful to the Republican government of France, and
he resolved to stand by it. The only crown he coveted was the freedom of
his race. He pursued the English vigorously, till he drove them from the
island. Yet he had no desire to harm them, any further than was
inevitable for the protection of his people. An English naval officer,
named Rainsford, being driven on the coast of St. Domingo by a violent
storm, was arrested as a spy. A court-martial was held, at which General
Christophe presided, in the absence of General Toussaint. Rainsford was
convicted, and sentenced to die. He was put into a dungeon to wait till
the sentence was signed by General Toussaint. The women of the island
pitied the stranger, and often sent him fruit and sweetmeats. When
Toussaint returned, he examined into the case, and said: "The trial
appears to have been fair, and the sentence just, according to the rules
of war. But why should we execute this stranger? He is alone, and can do
us no harm. His death would break his mother's heart. Let us have
compassion on her. Let us send him home, that he may tell the English
what sort of people we are, and advise them not to attempt to reduce us
to Slavery."
Having cleared the island of foreign enemies, Toussaint exerted all his
abilities to restore prosperity. He discharged the greater part of the
regular troops, and sent them to till the soil. At that time, men were
afraid to trust to immediate, unconditional emancipation; they had not
then learned by experiment that it is the wisest policy, as well as the
truest justice. Toussaint feared that when the former slaves were
disbanded from the army they would sink into laziness and vice, and thus
cause the name of freedom to be evil spoken of. Therefore, with the view
of guarding public morals, he instituted a kind of apprenticeship. He
ordained that they should work five years for their masters, on
condition of receiving one fourth of the produce, out of which the cost
of their subsistence was to be defrayed. Regulations were made by which
the laborers became a sort of proprietors of the soil; but I do not know
what were the terms. He did everything to encourage agriculture, and
tried to impress on the minds of the blacks that the permanence of their
freedom depended in a great measure upon their becoming owners and
cultivators of land. He proclaimed a general amnesty to men of all
colors and all parties, even to those who had fought with the English
against their own country. He invited the return of all fugitives who
were willing to become good citizens, and by public discourses and
proclamations promised them pardon for the past and protection for the
future. Before any important measure was carried into execution, he
summoned all the people to church, where, after prayers were offered,
he discoursed to them upon the prospects of the republic, and what he
considered essential to its future peace and prosperity. He ordered
prayers to be said night and morning at the head of the regiments. The
discipline of the army was so strict, that some accused him of severity.
But the soldiers almost idolized him, which I think they would not have
done, if he had not proved to them that he was just as well as strict.
After such a long period of foreign and civil war, it required a very
firm and judicious hand to restore order and security. His troops, once
lawless and savage, had become perfectly orderly under his regulations.
They committed no thefts on the plantations and no pillage in the
cities. He opened to all nations an unrestricted commerce with St.
Domingo; and he has the honor of being the first ruler in the world who
introduced a system of free trade. In the distribution of offices, he
sought out the men that were best fitted, without regard to complexion.
In many things he seemed to favor the whites more than the blacks;
probably from his extreme fear of not being impartial; perhaps also
because he knew the whites distrusted him and needed to be conciliated,
while people of his own color had entire confidence in him. But the most
obstinate prejudices gradually gave way before the wisdom and
uprightness of his government. White planters, who had been accustomed
to talk of him as a revolted slave and a lawless brigand, began to
acknowledge that he was a conscientious man and a wise legislator. A
general feeling of security prevailed, activity in business was
restored, and wealth began to flow in through its former channels.
But, with all his prudence and efforts at universal conciliation, he
could not at once heal the old animosities that had so long rankled in
the breasts of men. Some of the returned French planters resumed their
old habits of haughtiness and contempt toward the negroes. Some of the
proprietors, both white and black, in their haste to grow rich,
overworked their laborers; and, in addition to these causes of
irritation, it was whispered round that the whites were influencing the
French government to restore Slavery. In one of the northern districts a
proposition was made to disband the black troops. This excited
suspicion, and they rose in rebellion. Buildings were fired, and three
hundred whites slaughtered. Toussaint hastened to the scene of action,
and by assurances and threats quelled the tumult. The command of that
district was in the hands of General Moyse, the son of Toussaint's
brother Paul. He disliked the system of conciliation pursued toward the
whites, and had expressed his opinions in terms less respectful than was
proper toward a man of his uncle's age and character. The agricultural
returns from his district had been smaller than from other portions of
the island; and when Toussaint remonstrated with him for neglecting that
department, he replied: "Whatever my old uncle may see fit to do, I
cannot consent to be the executioner of my race, by causing them to be
worked to death. All your orders are given in the name of France. But to
serve France is to serve the interests of the whites; and I shall never
love the whites till they give me back the eye I lost in battle." When
the insurrection broke out in his district, the relatives of the
slaughtered whites complained to General Toussaint that his nephew had
not taken any efficient measures to put down the riot; and the black
insurgents excused themselves by saying General Moyse approved of their
rising. A court-martial was held, and General Moyse and several of the
ringleaders were condemned to be shot. The execution of this sentence
excited a good deal of ill-feeling toward Toussaint. He was loudly
accused of favoring the whites more than he did his own color; and to
this day it is remembered against him in the island. It certainly is the
harshest action recorded of Toussaint l'Ouverture. But it must be
remembered that he had invited the whites to come back, and had given
them promises of protection, because he thought the peace and prosperity
of the island could best be promoted in that way; and having done so, it
was his duty to see that their lives and property were protected.
Moreover, he knew that the freedom of his race depended upon their good
behavior after they were emancipated, and that insurrections would
furnish the French government with a pretext for reducing them to
Slavery again. If he punished any of the ringleaders with death, he
could not, without partiality, pardon his own nephew, who had been
condemned by the same court-martial. In this matter it is fair to judge
Toussaint by his general character, and that leaves no room to doubt
that severity was painful to him, and that when he resorted to it he was
actuated by motives for the public good.
That he could forgive offences against himself was shown by his
treatment of the mulattoes, who made trouble in the island about the
same time. They had never been pleased to see one of the black slaves,
whom they had always despised, placed in a situation which made him so
much superior to any of themselves. They manifested their
dissatisfaction in a variety of ways. They did their utmost to increase
the feeling that he showed partiality to the whites. In several
instances attempts were made to take his life. At one time, the plume
in his military cap was shot away. On another occasion, balls passed
through his carriage, and his coachman was killed; but he happened to be
riding off on horseback in another direction. This hostile feeling led
the mulattoes into an extensive conspiracy to excite rebellion against
his government. Toussaint was forewarned of it, and the attempt was put
down. Eleven of the leaders were carried to the Cape and imprisoned.
Toussaint called a meeting of the civil and military authorities, and
ordered the building to be surrounded by black troops while the mulatto
prisoners were brought in under guard. They looked extremely dejected,
expecting nothing but death. But he announced to them that, deeming the
forgiveness of injuries a Christian duty, he pardoned what they had
attempted to do against him. He gave them money to defray their
travelling expenses, told them they were at liberty to return to their
homes, and gave orders that they should be protected on the way. As he
passed out of the building, they showered blessings on his head, and the
air was filled with shouts of "Long live Toussaint l'Ouverture."
These outbreakings of old hatreds were local and short-lived. The
confidence in Toussaint's goodness and ability was almost universal; and
his popularity was so great with all classes, that he might have made
himself emperor, if he would. But through all the changes in France he
had been faithful to the French government; and now to the habit of
loyalty was added gratitude to that government for having proclaimed
freedom to his race. Next to the emancipation of his people, he sought
to serve the interests of France. Personal ambition never tempted him
from the path of duty. When the affairs of the colony seemed to be
arranged on a secure basis, he manifested willingness to resign the
authority which he had used with so much wisdom and impartiality. He
published a proclamation, in which he said:--
"Penetrated with that which is set forth in our Lord's Prayer, 'forgive
us our transgressions, as we forgive those who transgress against us,' I
have granted a general amnesty. Fellow-citizens, not less generous than
myself, endeavor to have the past forgotten. Receive misled brethren
with open arms, and let them in the future be on their guard against the
snares of bad men. Civil and military authorities, my task is
accomplished. It now belongs to you to take care that harmony is no more
disturbed. Allow no one to reproach those who went astray, but have now
returned to their duty. But, notwithstanding my proclamation of amnesty,
watch bad men closely, and do not spare them if they excite disturbance.
A sense of honor should guide you all. A true, confiding peace is
necessary to the prosperity of the country. It must be your work to
establish such a peace. Take no rest until you have accomplished it."