Toussaint L ouverture

Toussaint L'Ouverture was a Haitian slave, an African prince, from the Arradas tribe, according to his family, general and hero. He was born as a slave, in 1743, on the Island that bore the name St. Domingo by the time his was born, the present Haiti, in the Antillean Archipelago.

Toussaint grew up under the guidance of his loving family and his godfather, Pierre Baptiste. He spoke the African tongue of his family tribe, because it was still spoken in his family, he also learned French and, through the Catholic Church, some Latin. During his childhood, Toussaint did not possess any physical strength and his family often though he was to weak to survive these early years. His parents were shepherds and the hardships they went through together toughened the future Slave Revolt Revolution leader.

At the time of Toussaint's birth, the Antillean Island was a colony shared between France and Spain, according to the Treaty of Ryswick, signed between the two countries in 1697. The western part of the island that was under French occupation was thriving because of the plantations led by tens of thousands of French colonists. They were cultivating sugar, coffee and indigo and working their lands with slaves brought massively from Africa for this purpose. With the aid of a well managed slave machinery and under some of the most cruel slave treatments in the colonies, the French transformed St. Domingue in one of the richest colonies in the West Indies.

Toussaint was one of the few slaves who did not receive the severe treatment the rest of the slaves in St. Domingue were treated with, under the French Black Code. According to some sources, he became a free man when he was thirty three, and settled working a piece of land he rented. He got married and began a family life soon after and even owned a slave himself, for a short while. According to others, by the time he married Suzanne he was still a slave, as she was, but they were able to work a plot of land for themselves and seemed to lead a pleasant life under the conditions.

While the conditions of the French land owners on St. Domingue became more prosperous, those of their slave became more miserable. The social uprising in France echoed in all parts of the world, including in the Antillean Island. At that time, there were about 20.000 mostly of French origin white people. The rich planters that were depending on the slave trade for their businesses were mostly disapproving of the French government policies toward the colony and they were also disregarding the French laws. The rest of the white population on the island was made of white merchants, teachers, artisans etc. The majority were back or people of mixed origin, black and white. The percentage of free black people was pretty small comparatively with that vast majority that consisted of slaves and comprised approximatively 500,000 people.

The economic and political situation in the French part of the Haitian colony was contradictory in terms because the laws restricted the planters to selling their products exclusively to France and buying goods in return only from France. They were, of course dissatisfied with these conditions and disregarding them to a certain degree. The white land owners were controlling their African origin slaves with means of extreme cruelty. They were using such extreme methods because they considered them to be the most effective in keeping them from revolting against their owners. That happened eventually, of course, in different parts of the island. Toussaint joined the rebel slaves in 1791 and gradually gained the appreciation and respect of the others. France was already going through the Revolution, the execution of the king and queen, and the war against Spain and Britain. In 1793, Toussaint added to his name the L'Ouverture. He gathered on army of his own which he trained himself. After the French government abolished slavery, Toussaint joined the French troops against the Spanish, recapturing the forts the French lost to the Spanish since the beginning of the war.

Toussaint rapidly gained the appreciation of the troops he led to war, on the side of the French army. Not only did he lead his army against the Spanish, but he also succeeded to fight successfully against the British who were eventually forced to retreat completely from the island. After the having defeated the Spanish, too, Toussaint L'Ouverture became the new governor of an officially slave free island.

Toussaint succeeded to gain people's trust and support in his revolutionary ideas precisely because he disagreed with the first manifestations of revolt against the French. They were conducted themselves only by rules of destruction. After the defeat and condemnation of Oge, the new risings swept across the island: "The slaves awoke as if from an ominous dream. Under one of their class, named Boukman, a man of Herculean strength, who knew not what danger was, the negroes on the night of August 21st, 1791, arose in the terrific power of brute force. Gaining immediate success, they rapidly increased in numbers, and grew hot with fury. They fell on the plantations, slaughtered their proprietors, and destroyed the property. Such progress did the insurrection make, that on the 26th, the third of the habitations of the Northern Department were in ashes. In a week from its commencement the storm had swept over the whole plain of the North, from east to west, and from the mountains to the sea."

Toussaint proved to be a born leader with military skills. He was wise enough to gather the best men for the battle around him. His ability to lead, his intelligence and wise decisions convinced his men of his capacities and completely and definitively won their trust and support. He was able to persuade his men to fight on the side of the French, against the Spanish and the British, knowing the French Republic will support the ideals of a nation free of slavery.

After becoming governor, Toussaint Louverture used wise politics in the reconstruction and restoring of the economy on an island devastated by wars and revolts. He allowed to those who ran away to return and start working their lands again, he established economic and diplomatic relationships with the United States and Great Britain and he disapproved and even got rid of those who were not only immoral, but highly extremist, such as the case of Leger-Felicite Sonthonax. He believed in discipline, but not in corporal punishment and made use of military discipline when necessary.

Louverture got rid of another colony nostalgic representative of the government of France, Hedouville and also forced the black leader of a state in the south, Rigaud, to leave power. Thus, he became the governor for life and gave the island a new constitution.

Unfortunately, Napoleon did not appreciate Toussaint's courage and intelligence, his ability to lead his people and gain victories over French, British and Spanish armies. He was only seeing in Louverture an obstacle in his way to reestablish an empire. The colonies were for Napoleon nothing, but what they used to be for the rich European kingdoms for centuries: source of wealth and nothing more. As a consequence to such considerations, Napoleon sent his brother-in-law to seize St. Domingo and make it a fench colony again.