Those who feel interest enough in the extraordinary fortunes of
Toussaint L'Ouverture to inquire concerning him from the Biographical
Dictionaries and Popular Histories of the day, will find in them all the
same brief and peremptory decision concerning his character. They all
pronounce him to have been a man of wonderful sagacity, endowed with a
native genius for both war and government; but savage in warfare;
hypocritical in religion--using piety as a political mask; and, in all
his affairs, the very prince of dissemblers. It is true that this
account consists neither with the facts of his life, the opinions of the
people he delivered, nor the state documents of the island he governed.
Yet it is easy to account for. The first notices of him were French,
reported by the discomfited invaders of Saint Domingo to writers imbued
with the philosophy of the days of the Revolution; and later accounts
are copies of these earlier ones. From the time when my attention was
first fixed on this hero, I have been struck with the inconsistencies
contained in all reports of his character which ascribe to him cruelty
and hypocrisy; and, after a long and careful comparison of such views
with his words and deeds, with the evidence obtainable from Saint
Domingo, and with the temper of his times in France, I have arrived at
the conclusion that his character was, in sober truth, such as I have
endeavoured to represent it in the foregoing work.
I do not mean to say that I am the first who has formed an opinion that
Toussaint was an honest, a religious, and a mild and merciful man. In
an article in the _Quarterly Review_ (Number seventeen) on the "Past and
Present State of Hayti," so interesting an account is given of the great
negro, as to cause some wonder that no one has till now been moved by it
to present the facts of his life in the form of an historical novel. In
that article it is justly observed that the _onus_ rests with those who
accuse Toussaint of hypocrisy to prove their allegation by facts. I
would say the same of the other charge, of cruelty. Meanwhile, I
disbelieve both charges, for these reasons among others:--
The wars of Saint Domingo were conducted in a most barbarous spirit
before the time of Toussaint's acquisition of power, and after his
abduction. During the interval, the whole weight of his influence was
given to curb the ferocity of both parties. He pardoned his personal
enemies (as in the instance of the mulattoes in the church), and he
punished in his followers, as the most unpardonable offence they could
commit, any infringement of his rule of "No Retaliation."
When it is considered that the cruelties perpetrated in the rising of
1791, and renewed after the fall of Toussaint, were invented by the
whites, and copied by the negroes (who were wont to imitate their
masters in all they did), it is no small evidence of L'Ouverture's
magnanimity that he conceived, illustrated, and enforced, in such times,
such a principle as that of No Retaliation.
All the accounts of him agree that, from his earliest childhood, he was
distinguished by a tenderness of nature which would not let him hurt a
fly. He attached to himself the cattle and horses which were under his
charge when a boy, to a degree which made him famous in a region where
cruelty to animals at the hands of slaves was almost universal. A man
who lived till fifty, remarkable for a singular gentleness and
placability, ought not to be believed sanguinary from that time forward,
on the strength of the unsupported charges of his disappointed enemies.
Piety was also his undisputed early characteristic. A slave bringing to
the subject of religion the aptitude of the negro nature, early treated
with kindness by a priest, evincing the spirit of piety from his infant
years, finding in it the consolations required by a life of slavery, and
guided by it in a course of the strictest domestic morality, while
surrounded by licentiousness, _may_ well be supposed sincere in his
religion, under a change of circumstances occurring after he was fifty
years of age. The imputation of hypocrisy is not, however, much to be
wondered at when it is considered that, at the time when the first
notices of Toussaint were written at Paris, it was the fashion there to
believe that no wise man could be sincerely religions.
As for the charge of general and habitual dissimulation, it can only be
said that while no proof of the assertion is offered, there is evidence,
in all the anecdotes preserved of him, of absolute frankness and
simplicity. I rather think that it was the incredible extent of his
simplicity which gave rise to the belief that it was assumed, in order
to hide cunning. The _Quarterly Review_ quotes an anecdote thoroughly
characteristic of the man, which is not introduced into my story,
because, in the abundance of my materials, I found it necessary to avoid
altogether the history of the English transactions in Saint Domingo. It
was only by confining my narrative to the relations between Toussaint
and France that I could keep my tale within limits, and preserve the
clearness of the representation. There are circumstances, however, in
his intercourse with the British, as honourable to Toussaint's character
as any that I have related; and among them is the following, which I
quote from the _Quarterly Review_.
"General Maitland, previous to the disembarkation of the troops,
returned the visit at Toussaint's camp; and such was his confidence in
the integrity of his character, that he proceeded through a considerable
extent of country, full of armed negroes, with only three attendants.
Roume, the French Commissary, wrote a letter to Toussaint, on this
occasion, advising him to seize his guest, as an act of duty to the
republic: on the route, General Maitland was secretly informed of
Bourne's treachery; but, in full reliance on the honour of Toussaint, he
determined to proceed. On arriving at head-quarters, he was desired to
wait. It was some time before Toussaint made his appearance; at length,
however, he entered the room with two open letters in his hand. `There,
General,' said he, `before we talk together, read these. One is a
letter from the French Commissary--the other is my answer. I could not
see you till I had written my reply, that you might be satisfied how
safe you were with me, and how incapable I am of baseness.'"--_Quarterly
Review_, volume twenty-one, page 442.
The charge of personal ambition is, above all, contradicted by facts.
If anything is clear in Toussaint's history, it is that his ruin was
owing to his loyalty to France, his misplaced trust in Napoleon, and his
want of personal ambition. He did not, as he might have done, make
himself a sovereign when France was wholly occupied with European
warfare. He did not, as he might have done, prepare his people to
resist the power of the mother-country, when she should at length be at
liberty to reclaim the colony. He sent away the French commissaries
only when, by their ignorance and incompetency, they imperilled the
peace and safety of the colony. He cherished the love of the
mother-country in the hearts of the negroes, to the very last moment--
till the armament which came to re-establish slavery appeared on the
shores--till it was too late to offer that resistance which would have
made him a king. Christophe's view of this part of his conduct is given
in a manifesto, dated in the eleventh year of the Independence of
Hayti:--
"Toussaint L'Ouverture, under his paternal administration, had
reinstated, in full force, law, morals, religion, education, and
industry. Agriculture and commerce were flourishing. He favoured the
white colonists, particularly the planters. Indeed, his attentions and
partialities had been carried to such a length, that he was loudly
blamed for entertaining more affection for them than for those of his
own colour. Nor was this reproach without foundation; for, a few months
before the arrival of the French, he sacrificed his own nephew, General
Moyse, who had disregarded the orders he had given for the protection of
the colonists. That act of the Governor, added to the great confidence
he had placed in the French authorities, was the principal cause of the
feeble resistance the French encountered in Hayti. Indeed, his
confidence in these authorities was such, that he had discharged the
greater part of the regular troops, and sent them back to the tillage of
the soil."--_Haytian papers_, page 158.
Such conduct is a sufficient answer to the allegation that Toussaint was
actuated by a selfish ambition, cunning in its aims, and cruel in its
use of means.
Some light is thrown upon the character of his mind by the record of the
books he studied while yet a slave. Rainsford gives a list, which does
not pretend to be complete, but which is valuable as far as it goes. It
appears that in his years of comparative leisure he was completely
engrossed by one book at a time, reading it at all spare moments,
meditating its contents while in the field, and quoting it in
conversation for weeks together. One of the first authors whose works
thus entirely possessed him was Raynal: afterwards, Epictetus, in a
French translation; then others, as follows:--
Scriptores de Re Militari.
Caesar's Commentaries. French translation, by De Crisse.
Des Claison's History of Alexander and Caesar.
D'Orleans' History of Revolutions in England and Spain.
Marshal Saxe's Military Reveries.
Guischard's Military Memoirs of the Greeks and Romans.
Herodotus.
Le Bean's Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres.
Lloyd's Military and Political Memoirs.
English Socrates, Plutarch, Cornelius Nepos, etcetera, etcetera.
Great mystery hangs over the tale of Toussaint's imprisonment and death.
It appears that he was confined in the Temple only as long as Napoleon
had hopes of extorting from him information about the treasures,
absurdly reported to have been buried by him in the mornes [Note 1],
under circumstances of atrocious cruelty. It has been suggested that
torture was employed by Bonaparte's aide, Caffarelli, to procure the
desired confession; but I do not know that the conjecture is founded on
any evidence.
As to the precise mode of L'Ouverture's death, there is no certainty.
The only point on which all authorities agree is, that he was
deliberately murdered; but whether by mere confinement in a cell whose
floor was covered with water, and the walls with ice (a confinement
necessarily fatal to a negro), or by poison, or by starvation in
conjunction with disease, may perhaps never be known. The report which
is, I believe, the most generally believed in France is that which I
have adopted--that the Commandant, when his prisoner was extremely ill,
left the fortress for two or three days, with the key of Toussaint's
cell in his pocket; that, on his return, he found his prisoner dead; and
that he summoned physicians from Pontarlier, who examined the body, and
pronounced a serious apoplexy to be the cause of death. It so happened
that I was able, in the spring of last year, to make some inquiry upon
the spot; the result of which I will relate.
I was travelling in Switzerland with a party of friends, with whom I had
one day discussed the fortunes and character of Toussaint. I had then
no settled purpose of writing about him, but was strongly urged to it by
my companions. On the morning of the 15th of May, when we were drawing
near Payerne from Freyburg, on our way to Lausanne, I remembered and
mentioned that we were not very far from the fortress of Joux, where
Toussaint's bones lay. My party were all eager that I should visit it.
There were difficulties in the way of the scheme--the chief of which was
that our passports were not so signed as to enable us to enter France;
and the nearest place where the necessary signature could be obtained
was Berne, which we had left behind us the preceding day. I had,
however, very fortunately a Secretary of State's passport, besides the
Prussian Consul's; and this second passport, made out for myself and a
_femme-de-chambre_, had been signed by the French Minister in London.
One of my kind companions offered to cross the frontier with me, as my
_femme-de-chambre_, and to help me in obtaining access to the prison of
Toussaint; an offer I was very thankful to accept. At Payerne, we
separated ourselves and a very small portion of luggage from our party,
whom we promised to overtake at Lausanne in two or three days. We
engaged for the trip a double _char-a-banc_, with two stout little
horses, and a _brave homme_ of a driver, as our courteous landlady at
Payerne assured us. Passing through Yverdun, we reached Orbe by five in
the afternoon, and took up our quarters at the "Guillaume Tell," full of
expectation for the morrow.
On the 16th, we had breakfasted, and were beginning the ascent of the
Jura before seven o'clock. The weather was fine, and we enjoyed a
succession of interesting objects, till we reached that which was the
motive of our excursion. First we had that view of the Alps which, if
it were possible, it would be equally useless to describe to any who
have and any who have not stood on the eastern slope of the Jura, on a
clear day. Then we wound among the singular defiles of this mountain
range, till we reached the valley which is commanded by Jougne. Here we
alighted, climbing the slope to the gate of the town, while the carriage
was slowly dragged up the steep winding road. Our appearance obviously
perplexed the two custom-house officers, who questioned us, and peeped
into our one bag and our one book (the Handbook of Switzerland) with an
amusing air of suspicion. My companion told them that the aim of our
journey was the fortress of Joux; and that we expected to pass the
frontier again in the afternoon, on our return to Orbe. Whether they
believed us, or, believing, thought us very foolish, is best known to
themselves; but I suspect the latter, by their compliments on our
cleverness, on our return. At Jougne we supplied ourselves with
provisions, and then proceeded through valleys, each narrower than the
last, more dismal with pines, and more chequered with snow. The air of
desolation, here and there rendered move striking by the dreary
settlements of the charcoal-burners, would have been impressive enough,
if our minds had not been full of the great negro, and therefore
disposed to view everything with his eyes.
The scene was exactly what I have described in my story, except that a
good road, made since Toussaint's time, now passes round and up the
opposite side of the rock from that by which he mounted. The old road,
narrow and steep, remains; and we descended by it.
We reached the courtyard without difficulty, passing the two drawbridges
and portcullis described. The Commandant was absent; and his lieutenant
declared against our seeing anything more than the great wheel, and a
small section of the battlements. But for great perseverance, we should
have seen nothing more; but we obtained, at last, all we wanted. We
passed through the vault and passages I have described, and thoroughly
examined the cell. No words can convey a sense of its dreariness. I
have exaggerated nothing--the dim light, the rotten floor, shining like
a pond, the drip of water, the falling flakes of ice, were all there.
The stove was removed; but we were shown where it stood.
There were only three persons who pretended to possess any information
concerning the negro prisoner. The soldier who was our principal guide
appeared never to have heard of him. A very old man in the village, to
whom we were referred, could tell us nothing but one fact, which I knew
before--that Toussaint was deprived of his servant, some time before his
death. A woman in the sutler's department of the fortress pretended to
know all about him; but she had never seen him, and had no further title
to authority than that her first husband had died in the Saint Domingo
invasion. She did us the good service of pointing out the grave,
however. The brickwork which surrounds the coffin now forms part of a
new wall; but it was till lately within the church.
This woman's story was that which was probably given out on the spot, to
be told to inquirers; so inconsistent is it in itself, and with known
facts. Her account was, that Toussaint was carried off from Saint
Domingo by the ship in which he was banqueted by Leclerc (the last of a
line of two hundred), weighing anchor without his perceiving it, while
he was at dinner. The absurdity of this beginning shows how much
reliance is to be placed upon the rest of her story. She declared that
the Commandant Rubaut had orders from the Government to treat the
prisoner well; that his servant remained with him to the last; that he
was well supplied with books, allowed the range of the fortress, and
accustomed to pass his days in the house of the Commandant, playing
cards in the evenings: that on the last night of his life he excused
himself from the card-table, on the plea of being unwell; that he
refused to have his servant with him, though urged not to pass the night
alone; that he was left with fire, fauteuil, flambeaux, and a book, and
found dead in his chair in the morning; and that the physicians who
examined the body declared his death to have been caused by the rupture
of a blood-vessel in the heart. This last particular is known to be as
incorrect as the first. As for the rest, this informant differs from
all others in saying that Mars Plaisir remained with his master to the
last day of his life; and we may ask why Toussaint's nights were to be
passed in his horrible cell, if his days were so favoured; and how it
was that no research availed to discover to the eager curiosity of all
Europe and the West Indies the retreat of L'Ouverture, if he, a negro,
was daily present to the eyes of the garrison of the fortress, and to
those of all the inhabitants of the village, and of all the travellers
on that road who chose to raise their eyes to the walls.
Our third informant was a boy, shrewd and communicative, who could tell
us the traditions of the place; and, of course, young as he was, nothing
more. It was he who showed us where the additional stove was placed
when winter came on. He pointed to a spot beside the fireplace, where
he said the straw was spread on which Toussaint lay. He declared that
Toussaint lived and died in solitude; and that he was found dead and
cold, lying on that straw--his wood-fire, however, not being wholly
extinguished.
The dreary impressions of the place saddened our minds for long after we
had left it; and, glad as we were, on rejoining our party at Lausanne,
to report the complete success of our enterprise, we cannot recur to it,
to this day, without painful feelings.
How the lot of Toussaint was regarded by the generous spirits of the
time is shown in a sonnet of Wordsworth's, written during the
disappearance of L'Ouverture. Every one knows this sonnet; but it may
be read by others, as by me, with a fresh emotion of delight, after
having dwelt on the particulars of the foregoing history.
"Toussaint, the most unhappy Man of Men!
Whether the whistling rustic tend his plough
Within thy hearing, or thy head be now
Pillow'd in some deep dungeon's earless den:--
O miserable Chieftain! where and when
Wilt thou find patience? Yet die not: do thou
Wear rather in thy bonds a cheerful brow:
Though fallen thyself, never to rise again,
Live, and take comfort. Thou hast left behind
Powers that will work for thee: air, earth, and skies
There's not a breathing of the common wind
That will forget thee: thou hast great allies;
Thy friends are exultations, agonies,
And love, and Man's unconquerable mind."
The family of Toussaint were first sent to Bayonne, and afterwards to
Agen, where one of the sons died of a decline. The two elder ones,
endeavouring to escape from the surveillance under which they lived,
were embarked for Belle Isle, and imprisoned in the citadel, where they
were seen in 1803. On the restoration of the Bourbons, not only were
they released, but a pension was settled on the family. Madame
L'Ouverture died, I believe, in the South of France, in 1816, in the
arms of Placide and Isaac.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
What Napoleon afterwards thought of the dungeon of Toussaint, is known
through an anecdote which I have received from high authority.
The next occupant of Toussaint's cell was the Duc de Riviere, afterwards
the first French ambassador to Constantinople. The Duc (then Marquis)
was a young man, on the point of marriage with Mademoiselle de la Ferte,
when, for some unknown offence, he was thrown into prison at Joux, and
apparently forgotten. There he wasted three of the best years of his
life. Mademoiselle de la Ferte never relaxed in her efforts to obtain
his liberation; but she was told, at length, that Napoleon was weary of
her solicitations, and that further efforts on her part would have no
better result than increasing the displeasure of the Emperor. In the
hour of her despair, the kind-heartedness of Josephine came to her aid.
The ladies caused a model of the cell at Joux to be prepared--bearing
the most exact resemblance to the horrible abode; and this model
Josephine placed, with her own hands, on the bureau of the Emperor.
"Ah! fi donc! Quel est ce lieu abominable?" said the Emperor.
The Empress informed him that it was one of his Majesty's state prisons;
to which he replied that it was impossible; that no man could live
four-and-twenty hours in such a den. This brought out the information
that the Marquis de Riviere had lived three years in it, and was still
lying there, by his Majesty's commands.
"Otez-moi ca!" cried the Emperor, tartly. "Cette vue me fait fremir."
The model was removed. The Marquis was presently afterwards liberated.
He retired to Germany, where he was met by Mademoiselle de la Ferte,
whom he there married. In after-years he was fond of relating the
anecdote which I have given, as nearly as possible, in his method and
language.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
For some years I have read whatever came within my reach on the subject
of my present work: so that it would not now be easy to assign my
authority for every view and every statement it contains. The
authorities which I have principally consulted while actually writing, I
will, however, give. They are--Rainsford's "Historical Account of the
Black Empire of Hayti;" the above-mentioned article in the _Quarterly
Review_; Bryan Edwards's "Saint Domingo"; the article "Toussaint
L'Ouverture," in the "Biographie Universelle;" and the "Haytian Papers,"
edited by Prince Sanders.
Of these, Bryan Edwards, who did not live to complete his history,
barely names my hero; and the reports he gives of the Revolution of
Saint Domingo are useful chiefly as representing the prejudices, as well
as the interests, of the planters. The article in the _Quarterly_ is
valuable, as being an able and liberal digest of various narratives;
some derived from Hayti itself. Rainsford's book is nearly unreadable,
from the absurdity of its style; but it is truly respectable in my eyes,
notwithstanding, from its high appreciation of L'Ouverture's character.
It contains more information concerning Toussaint than can be found, I
believe, anywhere else, except in the Biographie; and it has the
advantage of detailing what fell under the writer's own observation.
The Biographie furnishes many valuable facts; but appears, from the
inconsistency of various parts, and the confused impression which it
conveys as a whole, to be a compilation in which the workman has been
more careful to record dates and other facts correctly, than to
understand the personage whose portrait he professes to give. The
"Haytian Papers" are the most valuable of all authorities, as far as
they go.
Of my other personages, all had a real existence, except Monsieur Revel,
Euphrosyne, and their servants; some of the planters mentioned in the
second chapter; the children of Bellair; the Abbess and her
establishment; and some of the visitors at Toussaint's levee; with a few
other subordinate characters.
Of the real personages, several were probably very unlike what I have
represented them. I knew the names of some, without knowing their
characters; as in the instances of Placide and Isaac, Messieurs Pascal
and Moliere, Mars Plaisir, Madame Oge, the Marquis d'Hermona, Laxabon,
Vincent, and Paul.
Of others, I knew the character and history, without being able to
ascertain the names; as in the instances of Madame Dessalines and Madame
Bellair. Since the issue of my first edition, I have learned that the
name of Madame Dessalines was Marie; and her second name, before
marriage, Claire or Clerc. I have not thought it advisable to
substitute Marie for Therese in this edition, as nothing could be
thereby gained which would compensate for disturbing the associations of
my readers in regard to one of the chief personages of the story.
Of others, such as the wife, daughters, and third son of Toussaint,
Monsieur Papalier, and the tutors, Azua and Loisir, I knew only that
they existed, without being able to learn their names or characters.
The only character designed to be fully and faithfully accordant with
history is that of Toussaint himself. Those which have much, but less
absolute, pretension to historical truth are those of Jean Francais,
Christophe, Dessalines, and the other negro Generals, old Dessalines,
Bellair, Raymond, the French Commissaries and Envoys, Bayou, and Moyse.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note 1. I believe the term "morne" is peculiar to Saint Domingo. A
morne is a valley whose bounding hills are themselves backed by
mountains.