records of stock then and there were not carefully kept. For fifty years
this negro had lived the life of a slave; his only occupation the hoeing
of cane and the grooming of horses. What thoughts, what struggles, what
hopes had taken shape in that uncultivated brain no man knows--for
Toussaint was a man of few words, and he left no writings. It was late
in life to begin a new trade; late to begin to find out his own powers
and strength; late to trust himself to freedom, he who had always had a
master; late to speculate upon the destinies of the black race; late to
attempt to shape them. But in revolutionary times men learn fast; great
men need only the opportunity; they rise to the emergency. Cromwell was
not a born or trained general or ruler, nor was Washington, nor was
William Tell. Toussaint had bided his time. This slave was ignorant,
knew nothing. He learned to read when approaching his declining years;
then he studied: Raynal, Epictetus, Caesar, Saxe, Herodotus, Plutarch,
Nepos--these were the books and lives he knew.
He decided to join his race, and having some knowledge of simples was
made physician of the forces commanded by Jean Francois. Here he served
well, as he always did, and learned the trade of war. Shocked at the
cruelties of whites and blacks he took the side of mercy and saved lives
from the sword as well as from disease. He saw the vanity of Francois,
the rashness of Biassou, the cruelty of Jeannot; but he retired
disgusted to no stupid monastery; he returned not to the ease and
degradation of slavery, but was equal to the facts of life, however
hard, and grappled with them and mastered them as a man should. He was
then loyal to the King, and he was loyal to the Church, a devout
Catholic.
In 1792, the three commissioners, sent out from France to "settle" the
affairs of the colony, had been thwarted and finally driven away by the
whites. In September (1792), Santhonax, Polverel, and Ailhaud had
arrived with troops, money, and instructions and a new governor,
Desparbes, in place of Blanchelande. He soon became disgusted, alarmed,
and he fled. The commissioners bestirred themselves to settle the
commotion. The rich planters were for the King; the _Petits Blancs_ were
for the Directory; the mulattoes, under Rigaud, ravaged the West: the
revolted negroes, under Jean Francois, Biassou and others, threatened on
the North. France herself, that ancient kingdom, was now fermenting;
struggling--yet with hope--to realize in the state her unformed faith in
democracy, and with the energy of despair striving to beat back the
waves of bayonets which beat and bristled on her borders. Thus matters
stood in France, thus in Santo Domingo. The slaves in both countries had
risen, and rushed to arms. Their remedy was desperate; so was their
disease.
General Galbaud, a new governor, arrived from France in May (1793). The
commissioners were engaged in the west in fighting Rigaud. They returned
to Cap Francois to fight the Governor whose authority they disputed.
Galbaud held the ships and the arsenals and determined to assert his
authority. His soldiers and sailors entered the town and abandoned
themselves to drunkenness, pillage and brutality. The commissioners
armed the slaves in the town, promised them freedom, and sent for aid to
the negro generals. Jean Francois and Biassou refused; but a chief,
Macayo, at the head of three thousand blacks, entered the town, and the
conflict raged. The whites were driven into the sea and slaughtered.
Madness ruled, and none fiercer than the mulattoes. Galbaud fled, and
half the city was destroyed by fire. At last--for a while--the whites
gave up the hope of recovering their slaves. Thousands fled--some
suppose nine-tenths--and found refuge along the American coasts.
Famine had more than once increased the misery during these three years,
yet the island was fruitful, and cultivation, here and there, went on.
The sagacious Jean Francois had initiated cultivation along the
mountain-sides, and in the valleys; and thus secured an unfailing
magazine of supply.
Toussaint, meanwhile, continues his duties with the negro troops.
Steadily and surely, if not rapidly, he gains strength and influence and
knowledge of war. He has measured himself with Jean and Biassou, and is
not wanting. His prudence, patience, silent will, and courage make him
useful to them, and his justice and determination and mercy make him the
idol of the men. The Marquis Hermona, Governor of the Spanish part of
the island, made advances to the negro chiefs. Santhonax, in his
extremity after the destruction of Cap Francois, sent Macayo to propose
an alliance, but they distrusted him.
Meanwhile Louis XVI was beheaded. They said, "We have lost the King of
France, but the King of Spain esteems us and gives us succor." They
declined the proposals of the commissioners, and ranged themselves on
the side of Spain. Toussaint was loyal to the memory of the King, and
followed Francois and Biassou. Hermona saw that Toussaint was a _man_;
and while Jean Francois was advanced to the first rank, Toussaint was
raised to that of colonel in the Spanish army. He at once applied
himself to his duties, and what he did was always well done. His troops
became, as if by a word, the best disciplined in the army. The reason
was plain: he knew what men ought to do and what they can do; and the
men knew that he was upright and wise. So these ragged, ignorant, roving
hordes became efficient troops. Confidence begat confidence: the
commander trusted his men, and they relied on him; together they were
strong. Idleness was not Toussaint's policy. The insurgents under Jean
Francois, Biassou, and Toussaint held strong positions in the mountains
south of Cap Francois. Brandicourt, the general of the French troops,
was at once trapped and compelled to order his troops to lay down their
arms. Grande Riviere, Dondon, Plaisance, Marmalade, and Ennery, the most
important places in the north, quickly fell into Toussaint's hands.
The French commissioners were getting into straits. The Spanish troops
were against them; the blacks were against them. The remaining whites
were divided; some wore the black cockade, others the white; the troops,
and friends of the commissioners, the tricolor; the mulattoes, the red.
War was everywhere, and no man was safe but with arms in his hands and
in the strongest party. But this was not enough: some of the planters
mounted the English hat and sent to the English for succor. Even
"_perfide Albion_" was welcome, if they might but reestablish slavery
and get again their estates. In this extremity, Santhonax decided to
make friends with the blacks, and proclaimed at Cap Francois universal
freedom (August 20, 1793). Polverel repeated the proclamation at Port au
Prince. The enthusiasm among the negroes was great, but not universal.
Their leaders were not moved; they distrusted the commissioners and they
doubted the stability of the French Republic--so the war went on.
In September, the English landed at Jeremie, in the extreme southwest.
They took possession of St. Nicholas, in the extreme northwest, and
during the year 1794 the whole western coast was in their
possession--St. Nicholas, St. Marc, St. Jacmel, Tiburon, Jeremie; and at
last, on June 4th, Port au Prince, the capital, yielded. "Twenty-two
topsail vessels," with their cargoes, worth four hundred thousand pounds
sterling, were a part of the spoil. The mulatto chief, Rigaud, had taken
the side of France. Educated in Bordeaux, he had followed, in Santo
Domingo, his trade of a goldsmith, which the whites thought too good for
a "nigger." He was a brave man, mild in peace, and terrible in war, and,
aided by Petion, he kept up a harassing fight against the English.
Shortly after the fall of Port au Prince, a ship arrived with a
requisition for the commissioners to return to France; they must answer
for their doings there, and General Laveaux was left as provisional
governor.
His case, and that of the French, was desperate. Shut up in Port de
Paix, the last stronghold of the French, he wrote (May 24, 1794): "For
more than six months we have been reduced to six ounces of bread a day,
officers as well as men, but from the 13th we have none whatever, the
sick only excepted. If we had powder we should have been consoled. We
have in our magazines neither shoes, nor shirts, nor clothes, nor soap,
nor tobacco. The most of the soldiers mount guard barefoot; we have no
flints for the men; but be assured that we will never surrender; be
assured too, that after us, the enemy will not find the slightest trace
of Port de Paix." Dark was the outlook, but brave was the heart of
General Laveaux.
The hour was nigh: the hands advanced on the dial of time. Events, which
no man could have foreseen or controlled, had gathered for judgment, and
at last a great nation had decreed freedom to a poor, debauched, and
servile race. But who should lead them, who should now defend them
against themselves; give shape and system to their undisciplined wishes,
carry them safely through the anarchy of unbounded liberty and
crystallize them into a state whose only sure basis is the Rights and
Duties of Labor, Thought, Speech, and Worship, the Rights and Duties of
Man. The hour has come and the man--Toussaint Breda! from his eyrie near
Dondon, sweeps the horizon. In the east he sees the decadent power of
Spain: it has spoken no word of freedom for the blacks. In the west he
sees the white sails of England: she is hand and glove with the planters
to reestablish slavery. In the north France and Laveaux are nigh death.
France only has proclaimed liberty to the blacks. Toussaint sees the
"opening" for his race and for himself, and from this day he is
Toussaint Louverture--the first of the blacks. Bone of their bone and
skin of their skin, he alone knows their needs, their capacities, and
their hearts. With the clear glance of inspiration he sees the moment,
with the firm grasp of talent he seizes it.
General Laveaux saw this, and through the priest, La Haye, made advances
to him. Toussaint is wise and he is wary; he keeps his own counsel; he
consults not Jean Francois, who had once cast him into prison; nor
Biassou, nor the Marquis Hermona. As usual, he performs his duties; as
usual, he partakes of the communion; as usual, his troops look to him,
and Hermona said: "There exists on earth no purer soul." He has placed
his wife and children in safety; he has ordered his affairs; his horse
stands saddled and bridled; then, tearing off his epaulettes he casts
them at the feet of the Spanish officers, flings himself on his horse,
and rides like the wind out of the camp. The Spaniards are for a moment
paralyzed: they pursue him, but neither hoof nor pistol can reach him.
Toussaint is not to be caught.
On May 4, 1794, he pulls down the Spanish and hoists the French colors.
Marmalade, Plaisance, Ennery, Dondon, Acul, and Limbe submit to him.
Confusion and fear prevail among the Spaniards; joy exalts the negroes.
Laveaux is saved, and the colony not yet lost to France. Toussaint is a
power in the state: the negroes everywhere respond to the sound of his
voice; they look to him as their hero, defender, guide, and guard.
Toussaint sets himself to his work. The whole province of the north soon
falls into his hands, and he drives the Spanish ally, Jean Francois,
westward along La Montaigne Noire. Then he hastens into the rich valley
of the Artibonite, attacks and beats back the English and besieges the
strong fortress of St. Marc; but neither forces nor ammunition is
sufficient and he retires to the mountain fastnesses of Marmalade to
recruit his troops. On October 9, 1794, he carries the fortress of San
Miguel by storm.
Toussaint determines to drive away the English, and he falls with fury
upon General Brisbane in the Artibonite and compels him to retreat. But
Jean Francois hung over him in the heights of La Grande Riviere. Again
he retires to Dondon and organizes his forces to repel the Spaniards. In
four days he takes and destroys twenty-eight positions, but Jean
Francois with a superior force threatens his rear while the English are
in front; again he is baffled and he returns to Dondon. Toussaint is no
longer the leader of marauding bands but the head of an army. His troops
are mostly raw and ignorant, badly clothed, armed, and fed, but they
trust in him and have courage. He seeks for efficient officers, and
finds Dessalines, Desroulaux, Maurepas, Clervaux, Christophe and
Lamartiniere. These he must command with discretion; his troops he must
provide with arms, ammunition, and food. He must watch the forces of the
Spaniards, the movements of the English. Intrigues abroad and
treacheries at home; henceforth he must organize campaigns.
The treaty of Basel had secured the cession of the whole Spanish part of
the island to France. Jean Francois was, therefore, at liberty to retire
to Spain, to enjoy his honors. There remained now but the English to
distract the plans of Toussaint and the French. One more disturbing
element yet existed. The mulattoes felt themselves superior to the
blacks, and the rightful successors to the whites in the honors and
government of the island. Jealous of Toussaint and the favors shown the
blacks, headed by Nillate (Villate), they rose against Laveaux, the
Governor of the Cape, and threw him into prison; his danger was extreme.
Toussaint descended on the town with ten thousand blacks and saved him.
Laveaux appointed him his lieutenant, second in command in the island,
and declared that he was the "Spartacus," foretold by Raynal, who should
avenge the sufferings of his race. Confidence grew now between the
blacks and the whites, and Lacroix--who is in no way friendly to the
blacks--admits that "if Santo Domingo still carried the colors of
France, it was solely owing to an old negro who seemed to bear
a commission from Heaven." The French continued to send
commissioners--Santhonax among them--but Toussaint was the moving mind;
and when Laveaux, having been elected Delegate to the Assembly, sailed
for France, Santhonax finally appointed him commander-in-chief.
Toussaint, now "Louverture"; a strong hand and a clear head, though
black, now directs the affairs of the island. Daily he gains strength
and the confidence of the negroes. They flock to his army; they listen
and obey his words. Christophe, in the north, had encouraged
cultivation. Toussaint throws his powerful influence into the work. His
maxim, "that the liberty of the blacks can never endure without
agriculture," passes from mouth to mouth among the negroes, and rouses
in them the desire for lands and wealth--for the first time now
possible. He wishes that Cape and the towns along the north should be
rebuilt. It is done; they rise from their ashes. All hopes are centred
in the General-in-Chief: _he_ can restore peace and prosperity; he
alone.
The English now were sore bestead. The French pressed them in the west;
Desfourneaux in the north; Rigaud in the south; Christophe had carried
the heights of Valliere--the Vendee of Santo Domingo. Toussaint
Louverture again attempts to take St. Marc; thrice he storms it, thrice
he deserves success, but again he fails to clutch this strong fortress.
He turns now to Mirebelois, an interior Thermopylae, strongly fortified
by the English. His lieutenant, Mornay, intercepted Montalembert, who
was advancing with seven hundred men and two pieces of artillery. The
next day he drives in all the English troops, invests the village of St.
Louis, carries the forts by assault, and in fourteen days totally
defeats the English, taking two hundred prisoners, eleven pieces of
cannon, and military stores. The efforts of the English are nearly at an
end; weak and weary, their strength is spent. Whitlocke, Williamson,
Whyte, Horneck, Brisbane, and Markham, have tried to subdue these rebels
and to wrest the colony from France: they have bitten a file. Millions
of pounds have been wasted; Brisbane and Markham are killed; thousands
of soldiers slain; the yellow fever, too, has done its work.
General Maitland at last decided to leave the island, and between him
and Toussaint there went on a struggle of diplomacy; but Louverture was
more than his equal: he accepted his honors, but refused his bribes.
They made terms, and Maitland evacuated Port au Prince and St. Nicholas.
One incident illustrates Maitland's confidence in Toussaint. Before the
disembarkation of his troops, he determined to return Louverture's
visit. He proceeded to his camp, through a country full of negroes, with
but three attendants. On his way he heard that Roume, the French
commissioner, had advised Toussaint to seize him; but he proceeded, and
when he reached the camp, after waiting a short time, Toussaint entered,
and, handing him two letters--Roume's and his reply--said: "Read; I
could not see you until I had written, so that you could see that I am
incapable of baseness."
General Lacroix has written that he saw, in the archives at Port au
Prince, the offers made to Toussaint, securing him in the power and
kingship of the island, and liberty to his race, with a sufficient naval
force on the part of England, provided he would renounce France and form
a commercial treaty with England. The event leads one to regret that
Toussaint's ambition was not superior to his loyalty to France.
During these proceedings with the English, Santhonax had departed for
France, partly at his own request, partly because he was in the way of
Toussaint's plans for the restoration of the island. With him, Toussaint
sent his two sons to receive some education in France, and to show, as
his letter stated, "his confidence in the Directory--at a time when
complaints were busy against him." He said, "there exist no longer any
internal agitations; and I hold myself responsible for the submission to
order and duty of the blacks, my brethren."
FOOTNOTES:
[35] Now, in English, Cape Haitien. The place is a seaport of northern
Haiti.--ED.
REPUBLICAN FRANCE DEFIES EUROPE
BATTLE OF VALMY
A.D. 1792
ALPHONSE M. L. LAMARTINE
In the battle of Valmy the French, under Dumouriez and
Kellermann, repulsed the Prussians and their allies,
commanded by the Duke of Brunswick. Though not in itself a
great victory, its results have led some historians to call
that action one of the decisive battles of the world. The
final withdrawal of the Prussians, owing to Russian
intrigues in Poland, left an open way for the French army
into the Austrian Netherlands, which at Jemapes (November 6,
1792) were won for France. Other victories for the
Revolution quickly followed, greatly advancing its cause.
After the fall of the Bastille (July 14, 1789), the National
Assembly abolished special privileges, slavery, and serfdom
in France and all her territories, and decreed equal
taxation. A new constitution was made. These acts heightened
popular enthusiasm for the revolt. Political clubs, chief of
which was that of the Jacobins, were formed in Paris. They
were fiercely uncompromising in their demand for the
overthrow of the monarchy. Many of the nobles hastened to
quit the country. The King was virtually made prisoner in
Paris, whence he attempted to escape, but was captured by
insurgents and closely guarded in the city.
The National Assembly came to an end and was succeeded
(October 1, 1791) by the Legislative Assembly, a still more
radical body, which for a year practically ruled France over
the head of the King.
Such was the state of affairs in France when,
notwithstanding the complications in the East, the Emperor
Leopold II and King Frederick William II of Prussia issued
the Convention of Pillnitz (August, 1791). This was the
basis of an alliance for the rescue of Louis XVI from his
enemies, and for his full restoration to power. It led a
little later to a formidable coalition of sovereigns against
the Revolution. Brunswick advanced toward Paris, but while
he hesitated in his progress the French army, under
Dumouriez, was increased in numbers and discipline.
Dumouriez was on the Belgian border, preparing for his
"Argonne campaign," the first events of which no one has
better described than Lamartine.
While the interregnum of royalty and republicanism delivered Paris over
to the revolutionists, France, with all its frontiers open, had for
security nothing but the small forest of Argonnes and the genius of
Dumouriez. On September 2, 1792, this general was shut up with sixteen
thousand men in the camp of Grandpre, occupying with weak detachments
the intermediate defiles between Sedan and Sainte-Menehould, by which
the Duke of Brunswick might attempt to break his line and turn his
position. He caused the tocsin to be rung in the villages, hoping to
excite the enthusiasm of the inhabitants; but the captures of Longwi and
Verdun, the understanding between the gentlemen of the country and the
_emigres_,[36] the hatred of the Revolution, and the disproportionate
amounts of the coalesced army, discouraged resistance. Dumouriez, left
to himself by the inhabitants, could only rely on his own troops. His
sole hope was in forming a junction with Kellermann. If that could be
effected behind the forest of Argonne before the troops of the Duke of
Brunswick could force the natural rampart, Kellermann and Dumouriez,
uniting their troops, would have a body of forty-five thousand soldiers
to ninety thousand Prussians, and might then with some hope hazard the
fate of France on a battle.
Kellermann, who was worthy to understand and second this grand idea,
served without jealousy Dumouriez's design, satisfied with his share of
the glory if his country should be saved. He marched to Metz, at the
extremity of the Argonne, informing Dumouriez of every step he took. But
their superior intelligence was a mystery for the majority of officers
and soldiery. Provisions were scarce and bad, the general himself eating
black bread. Ministers, deputies, Luckner himself--influenced by his
correspondents in the camp--wrote perpetually to Dumouriez to abandon
his position and retire to Chalons.
Slight skirmishes with the advanced guard of the Prussians, in which the
French were always victorious, gave the troops patience. Miaczinski,
Stengel, and Miranda drove back the Prussians at all points. Dumouriez,
in his position, deadened the shock of the one hundred thousand men whom
the King of Prussia and the Duke of Brunswick collected at the foot of
Argonne. Chance nearly lost all.
Overcome by fatigue of body and mind, he had forgotten to reconnoitre
with his own eyes, and quite close to him, the defile of Croix-au-Bois,
which had been described to him as impracticable for troops,
particularly cavalry and artillery. He had placed there, however, a
dragoon regiment, two battalions of volunteers, and two pieces of
cannon, commanded by a colonel; but in consequence of the recall of the
dragoons and the two battalions before the troops ordered to replace
them had come up, the defile was for a moment open to the enemy. A great
many volunteer spies, whom the emigres had in the villages of Argonne,
hastened to point out this weakness to Clerfayt, the Austrian general,
who instantly despatched eight thousand men, under the command of the
young Prince de Ligne, who seized on the position.
A few hours afterward, Dumouriez, informed of this reverse, placed
General Chazot at the head of two brigades, six squadrons of his best
troops, four pieces of cannon, besides the artillery belonging to the
battalions, and ordered him to attack the place at the bayonet's point,
and recover the position at any sacrifice. Every hour the impatient
commander despatched aides-de-camp to Chazot to expedite his march and
bring him back information. Twenty-four hours passed away thus in doubt.
On the 14th Dumouriez heard the sound of firing on his left, and judged
by the noise, which receded, that the Imperialists were in retreat and
Chazot had gained the forest. In the evening a note from Chazot informed
him that he had forced the intrenchments of the Austrians, in spite of
their desperate defence; that eight hundred dead lay in the defile,
among whom was the Prince de Ligne.