Under their new leader the revolted slaves held their own against their
enemies, declaring in favor of the king, Louis XVI., and against the
revolutionists. On the other hand, the English came to the aid of the
whites, and the island was thrown into a state of horrible confusion,
increased by the interference of the Spaniards, who held the eastern
section of the island.
In 1794, after the Convention in Paris had issued a decree demanding the
liberation of the slaves, Toussaint and his followers joined the
revolutionary cause, and aided the French general Laveaux to expel the
British and Spanish invaders. In this campaign he won a number of
victories, and showed such military skill and ability as to prove him a
leader of the highest qualities. Beard says of him, "His energy and his
prowess made him the idol of his troops.... In his deeds and warlike
achievements he equalled the great captains of ancient and modern times."
One example of the risks which he ran in battle occurred in his efforts to
put down an insurrection of the mulattoes. In this contest he fell into an
ambush in the mountains near Port de Paix, a shower of bullets sweeping
his ranks. His private physician fell dead by his side and a plume of
feathers in his hat was shot away, but he remained unharmed. The same was
the case soon after when, in a narrow pass, his coachman was shot down.
The negro leader seemed, like Napoleon, to bear a charmed life.
Declaring himself lieutenant-general of the colony, he wrote to the
Directory in Paris, guaranteeing to be responsible for the orderly
behavior of the blacks and their good will to France. He sent at the same
time his two elder sons to Paris to be educated, making them practically
hostages for his honor and good faith.
In 1798 the war, which had lasted for years, came to an end, the British
being expelled from the island and the rebellious mulattoes put down.
Peace prevailed, and the negro conqueror now devoted himself to the
complete pacification of the people. Agriculture was encouraged, the
churches were reopened, schools were established, and law and justice were
made equal for all. At the same time the army was kept in excellent
training and a rigid discipline exacted.
As is usual in such cases, there were abundant applications among the
negroes for official positions, and Toussaint was sorely put to it to
dispose of these ignorant aspirers after high places without giving
offence. He seems, however, to have been well versed in political
management, and is said to have disposed of one unlearned applicant for a
judicial position with the words, "Ah, yes; you would make an excellent
magistrate. Of course you understand Latin.--No?--Why, that is very
unfortunate, for you know that Latin is absolutely necessary."
There is another evidence of his wisdom in dealing with his people that is
worth repeating. As has been said, when the revolution began Hayti had
about half a million of blacks to seventy thousand whites and mulattoes.
Toussaint adopted an original method of making the force of this fact
evident to his followers. He would fill a glass with black grains of corn
and throw upon them a few grains of white. "You are the black grains," he
would say; "your enemies are the white." Then he would shake the glass.
"Where are the white grains now? You see they have disappeared."
The authorities in France could not but recognize the ability and the
moderation of the black leader, and in 1796 he was appointed
commander-in-chief in the island, a commission which was confirmed by
Bonaparte about December, 1799. All classes and colors regarded him as a
general benefactor and a wise and judicious ruler. Order and prosperity
were restored, and his government was conducted with moderation and
humanity. It looked as though peace and good will might continue in Hayti
as long as this able governor lived, but unluckily he had to deal with a
man in whom ambition and pride of place overruled all conceptions of
justice. This was Napoleon Bonaparte, who had now risen to the supreme
power in France.
Bonaparte seems to have been angered by two letters which Toussaint sent
him, after having completely pacified the island. These were addressed,
"The First of the Blacks to the First of the Whites." The assumed equality
seems to have touched the pride of the conqueror, for he disdained to
answer the letters of the Haytian ruler. Early in 1800 a republican
constitution was drafted under the auspices of Toussaint, which made Hayti
virtually independent, though under the guardianship of France. An
election was held and the liberator chosen president for life.
When the news of this action reached France in July, 1800, Napoleon was
furious. He had just been made First Consul and would brook no equal. "He
is a revolted slave, whom we must punish," he exclaimed; "the honor of
France is outraged." Resolved to reduce the negroes again to slavery, he
sent to Hayti a fleet of sixty ships and an army of about thirty-five
thousand men, under General Leclerc, the husband of Pauline Bonaparte.
Pauline accompanied him, and also several officers who had been former
opponents of Toussaint.
Meanwhile, the Haytien president had not been idle. Having subdued the
French portion of the island, he led his army into the Spanish portion,
which was also reduced, San Domingo, its capital, being taken on January
2, 1801. When the keys of this city were handed to him by its governor,
the negro conqueror said, solemnly, "I accept them in the name of the
French Republic." Yet his conquests in the name of France did not soften
the heart of the First Consul, who was bent on treating him as a daring
rebel. The Peace of Amiens left the hands of Napoleon free in Europe, and
the expedition under Leclerc reached the island about the end of 1801.
To oppose the strong army of Napoleon's veterans, men who had been trained
to victory under his own eye, Toussaint had a force of blacks little more
than half as strong. As he looked at the soldiers disembarking from the
ships in the Bay of Samana he exclaimed in dismay, "We are lost! All
France is coming to invade our poor island!"
The French made landings at several of the ports of Hayti, driving back
their defenders. The city of San Domingo, held by Toussaint's brother,
Paul, was taken. Cristophe, a daring negro who was to figure high in the
subsequent history of the island, commanded at Cape Haytien, and when
Leclerc summoned him to surrender, replied, "Go tell your general that the
French shall march here only over ashes, and that the ground shall burn
beneath their feet." This was not bombast, for when he found further
defence impossible, he set fire to the city and retreated to the
mountains, taking with him two thousand white prisoners. Grief and despair
filled the soul of Toussaint when, marching to the relief of Cristophe, he
saw the roads filled with fugitives and the city in ashes.
But though the French became masters of the ports, the army of the blacks
maintained itself in the mountain fastnesses, in which Toussaint defied
all the efforts of his foes. After Leclerc had lost heavily, and began to
despair of subduing his able opponent by force of arms, he had recourse to
strategy. He had brought with him Toussaint's two sons. Napoleon had
interviewed these boys before their departure from France, saying to them,
"Your father is a great man, and has rendered good service to France. Tell
him I say so, and bid him not to believe I have any hostile intention
against the island. The troops I send are not designed to fight the
natives, but to increase their strength, and the man I have appointed to
command is my own brother-in-law."
Leclerc sent these boys to Toussaint, with the demand that he should
submit or send his children back as hostages. An affecting interview took
place between the boys and their father, and when they repeated to him
Napoleon's words, he was at first inclined to yield, but fuller
consideration induced him to refuse.
"I cannot accept your terms," he said. "The First Consul offers me peace,
but his general no sooner arrives than he begins a fierce war. No; my
country demands my first consideration. Take back my sons."
In the continuation of the war a French force of twenty thousand men under
Rochambeau marched against Toussaint, who was strongly intrenched at Crete
a Pierrot. In the contest that followed Toussaint at first outgeneralled
Rochambeau and defeated him with severe loss. But the assistance he looked
for from his subordinates failed to reach him, and at length he was forced
to retreat.
The French, however, despite their superior numbers and the military
experience of their leaders, found that they had no mean antagonist in the
negro general, and Leclerc again resorted to negotiation, offering the
blacks their freedom if they would submit. Toussaint, seeing that he was
unable to hold his own against his powerful foe, and convinced that the
terms offered would be advantageous to his country, now decided to accept
them, saying, "I accept everything which is favorable for the people and
for the army; as for myself, I wish to live in retirement."
The negro liberator trusted his enemies too much. The pride of Napoleon
had not yet digested the affront of Toussaint's message, "From the First
of the Blacks to the First of the Whites," and he sent orders to Leclerc
to arrest and send him to France. In June, 1802, a force was sent secretly
at night to Toussaint's home, where he was dwelling in peace and quiet.
The house was surrounded, two blacks that sought to defend him were killed
on the spot, and he was dragged from his bed and taken to the coast. Here
he was placed on board a man-of-war, which at once set sail for France.
Napoleon's treatment of Toussaint was one of the dark deeds in his career.
Reaching France, the captive was separated from his wife and children and
confined in the dungeon of a dreary frontier castle. Here, one morning in
April, 1803, Toussaint L'Ouverture, the negro liberator, was found dead.
He had been starved to death, if we may accept the belief of some authors.
The Haytien patriot died in poverty, though he might easily have
accumulated vast wealth. In his official position he had maintained a
degree of magnificence, and Napoleon believed that he had concealed great
riches somewhere in the island. He sent spies to question him, but
Toussaint's only reply was, "No, the treasures you seek are not those I
have lost." The lost ones were his wife, his children, and his liberty.
Treachery is often an error, and Napoleon was soon to find that he had
made a fatal mistake in his treatment of the leader of the blacks. Alarmed
at his seizure, and having no one to control them, the negroes flew to
arms, and soon the revolt spread over the whole island. Yellow fever came
to the aid of the blacks, raging in Leclerc's army until thousands of
soldiers and fifteen hundred officers found graves in the land they had
invaded. In the end Leclerc himself died, and Pauline was taken back to
France. When Napoleon heard the story of the fate of his expedition, he
exclaimed in dismay,--
"Here, then, is all that remains of my fine army; the body of a
brother-in-law, of a general, my right arm, a handful of dust! All has
perished, all will perish! Fatal conquest! Cursed land! Perfidious
colonists! A wretched slave in revolt. These are the causes of so many
evils." He might more truly have said, "My own perfidy is the cause of all
those evils."
A few words must conclude this tale. General Rochambeau was sent large
reinforcements, and with an army of twenty thousand men attempted the
reconquest of the island. After a campaign of ferocity on both sides, he
found himself blockaded at Cape Haytien, and was saved from surrender to
the revengeful blacks only by the British, to whom he yielded the eight
thousand men he had left. As he sailed from the island he saw the
mountain-tops blazing with the beacon-fires of joy kindled by the blacks.
From that day to this the island of Hayti has remained in the hands of the
negro race.