Module: HST4604 Global Encounters: Conquest and Culture in World History
By: Rida Shaban
The Haitian Revolution shocked the contemporary world in a stunning display of slaves violently rising against their masters and declaring an independent Black Republic, the only example of its kind and in an atmosphere of absolute imperial power, and brutally racist sentiment. Therefore, it is unsurprising that the Haitian Revolution induced various reactions and ideas at the time which impacted post-Revolution Haiti, in addition to influencing various opinions on the causes of the Revolution. The contemporary beliefs on the real causes of the Haitian Revolution were the ideological principles of liberty and the French Revolution, the desire by mulatto Haitians to receive greater legal and civil rights, and the need to end the horrifically harsh conditions for plantation slaves, with this point being substantially perpetuated by French abolitionists. While these points are inexorably intertwined, they each have unique attributes and strikingly different advocates and opponents. The most significant contemporaries in this study are the Haitian revolutionaries themselves, whose documents served to inform foreign observers of the causes of the Revolution. The term 'mulatto' will be used to include 'free blacks', 'gens de couleur libre' and other descriptions of the free people of colour, whether black or mixed race, living in Saint-Domingue (modern-day Haiti).
Revolutionary ideology, largely similar to the ideals of the French Revolution, played a central role in causing the Haitian Revolution, most vividly so before the ascension of Napoleon in the metropole. The origin of revolutionary ideology in Saint-Domingue preceded the Haitian Revolution of 1791. In 1790, Vincent Ogé, a wealthy mixed-race lawyer and member of the Amis des Noirs, lobbied the governor of Saint-Domingue, seeking the suffrage for mulattoes that was promised in the Declaration of the Rights of Man following the French Revolution. In his letter to the Provincial Assembly, he stated "I require you to promulgate throughout the colony the instructions of the National Assembly of 8th March, which gives without distinction to all free citizens the right of admission to all offices and functions".[1] Ogé’s strong-worded letter was widely distributed and used to gain support for the revolt, in addition to being a warning to the authorities. John Relly Beard’s 1853 publication provides an insight into the strength of Ogé’s uprising, reporting that it took two waves of attack and 2,100 imperial soldiers to overcome the rebel lawyer’s supporters.[2] This introduced the colony to a tangible example of the use of ideology, namely that of liberty, civil rights and the French Revolution, to achieve greater freedoms and break away from oppression. Though this rebellion was brutally crushed, it remained a source of inspiration for the oppressed black population of Saint-Domingue, particularly the more politically aware mulattoes. This supports the argument of Robin Blackburn that as the revolutions unfolded, their interrelatedness led to increasingly radical outcomes, especially since the basis of Ogé's revolt was, according to Ogé himself, the French Revolution and its new constitution that declared the enfranchisement of all free men without racial limitations.[3] The interconnected nature of these revolutions demonstrates the direct influence of the French Revolution and its ideology on the Haitian Revolution. Later, as the Haitian Revolution threatened France's most lucrative colony, the French Proclamation of 1794 was issued with the purpose of appeasing the Haitians and avoiding a detrimental outcome. The Proclamation used French Revolutionary ideals to appease the revolutionaries, stating "Men are born and remain free and equal in rights [...] It is more than time that it is proclaimed in all the departments of the Republic," implying the importance of the ideology of Ogé’s rebellion and the French Revolution.[4] By using the French Revolutionary ideals of liberty and equality as a form of appeasement, it is evident that the French authorities, along with the pioneering Haitian revolutionaries, believed the desire for such an ideology to be the cause of the Haitian Revolution.
Though ideology continued to be perceived as a major cause of the Haitian Revolution, following Napoleon's rise as Emperor in 1804 there was a change in the use of ideology towards Haiti as Napoleon attempted to restore slavery and the former status of the colony. The French Revolutionary ideals and the broader concept of liberty remained central to the Haitian struggle, and they were used to resist Napoleonic France, demonstrating their significance as a cause of the Haitian Revolution. Napoleon himself acknowledged this in a letter to the chief revolutionary leader, Toussaint Louverture, in 1801 where he ostensibly attempted to reconcile with Louverture, writing "Do you wish for the freedom of the Blacks? You know very well that in every country that we have been we have conferred it on those people who before were not in possession of it.”[5] By offering liberty in the hope of pacifying the Revolution and clinging onto the lucrative colony, Napoleon demonstrates that it was accepted that the Haitian Revolution was centred on an ideology, with liberty at the forefront. Furthermore, Toussaint Louverture reaffirmed his belief in French Revolutionary ideals in his memoir during his incarceration in a French prison in Fort-de-Joux. He places emphasis on "equity, reason, law" in the struggle against Napoleonic France, principles explicitly exalted by the Declaration of the Rights of Man, the foundation of the French Republic.[6] With Louverture’s memoir being widely circulated, contemporaries were aware of the role of this ideology in causing the Haitian Revolution. This sentiment was later echoed and entrenched by the prominent 19th century Haitian historian Beaubrun Ardouin who promulgated in his works the extensive Haitian Revolutionary use of the concept of liberty along with French Revolutionary ideology. He discussed the slogan of "Liberty or Death" placed by revolutionary leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines on the Haitian flag, which was a French tricolour with the white section symbolically removed.[7] This is a prime example of the Haitian Revolution adopting the ideology of the French Revolution while fighting the French Republic, in addition to the external acknowledgment of the significance of this factor to the emergence of the Haitian Revolution. With the importance of ideology being acknowledged by the revolutionaries, their opponents and contemporary historians, this factor was clearly widely considered to be a major cause of the Haitian Revolution.
Another factor perceived to be a cause of the Haitian Revolution was the desire, both in Saint-Domingue and abroad, to incorporate coloured people into the legal and civil rights enjoyed by whites in the territory. Domestically, the revolutionary leaders extensively publicised their aim of achieving greater rights, contributing to the common belief that this factor was a cause of the Revolution. In a desperate attempt to create a 'friendship' with the mulattoes, Henri Gregoire, Deputy of the French National Assembly, sent a letter to the 'citizens of colour and free blacks' in 1791 where he begins by the reassurance that "you are now citizens and reintegrated to the plenitude of your rights," in addition to conceding the previous demands of Vincent Ogé and confirming that French legal rights and liberties would be enjoyed by all citizens of the French Empire, demands that could no longer be repressed with force as was done with Ogé.[8] This concession demonstrates that the French believed the issue of legal and civil rights were crucial to the Haitian Revolution to the extent that they believed simply granting these rights to the free blacks alone would pacify the Revolution. Therefore, the granting of legal and civil rights to the mulatto class was seen as a core issue to the origin of the Haitian Revolution, to the extent that the discourse preceding the Revolution was focused on the issue of rights before slavery was even mentioned.
The issue of legal and civil rights was also acknowledged externally, outside the two camps of metropolitan France and Haiti. In 1790, a French left-wing newspaper, Révolutions de Paris, stood in solidarity with the Haitian revolutionaries by calling for the incorporation of black people into civil society and granting them greater rights, arguing that black citizens of Saint-Domingue should be permitted to "come and participate in the legislative process at the heart of our national assemblies."[9] Less prominent and official sources similarly acknowledging the importance of this issue shows it was commonly seen by contemporaries to be a major cause of the Haitian Revolution. The importance of this issue was also recognised by the administration of the United States though from a contrasting perspective. In a 1792 letter to Marquis de Lafayette, Thomas Jefferson laments the rise in black rights and is disheartened that "no future efforts you can make will ever be able to reduce the blacks."[10] This demonstrates the universality of the perceived significance of the issue of black rights to the Haitian Revolution, with both those that supported and those that opposed black liberation and black rights acknowledging its importance. A display of the importance of the legal rights issue to the Haitian Revolution at the time was the reaction of the Provincial Assembly of Saint-Domingue to the Metropolitan Decree of May 15th which declared non-whites eligible for assembly seats. The Assembly demanded the repeal of the decree and refused to implement it. Defying the law of France conveys the extent to which this clause was threatening to the stability of colonial rule in Saint-Domingue and how integral the Assembly believed it to be to the black population and the Revolution. Therefore, the significance of legal and civil rights is entrenched by its acknowledgement by the Haitian revolutionaries, the French Republic, French media, the American administration, and the colonial authorities as a major cause of the Haitian Revolution.
The extraordinarily harsh conditions experienced by slaves in Saint-Domingue were considered a cause for the outbreak of the Haitian Revolution. This belief was manifested by the abolition movement in France that campaigned against the severe conditions in Saint-Domingue. Within the territory, there were some half a million slaves by 1789, with these slaves experiencing the most brutal treatment of slaves anywhere.[11] C.L.R. James describes a common punishment where slaveowners would kill a slave and force their other slaves to eat a part of their corpse, threatening them with the same punishment if they refused.[12] This was in addition to public whippings, burnings, castrations and various execution methods regularly implemented against slaves.[13] British officer Marcus Rainsford described in his account the import of bloodhounds from Cuba by General Rochambeau and William Quarrell (a wealthy planter and member of the Legislative Assembly in Jamaica) to aid in the "extermination" of the black revolutionaries.[14] This provides a brief window into the world of the nauseatingly horrific conditions which were known to external observers and provided the conditions for a backlash from the slaves. This was identified as a dangerous issue since Louis XIV's Code Noir of 1685. In it, masters are legally required to provide substantially for their slaves in Article XXII, and the masters are threatened with prosecution if their slaves are "not fed, clothed and supported."[15] Despite the Code evidently being regularly circumvented, the attempt to limit the harsh conditions endured by slaves was an indication that the French authorities were cautious of the consequences that the continuation of these conditions would create. Furthermore, Rainsford describes the prospect of abolition and escape from these conditions as unsurprisingly joyful but additionally all-permeating, stating "it excited among them [the slaves] a general clamour, which extended to every part where their cause […] was known, or even heard of."[16] Rainsford witnessed first-hand that the idea of breaking their shackles was a critical cause of the Haitian Revolution. Therefore, by observing the abhorrent conditions suffered by slaves in Saint-Domingue and the various reactions to it, this was evidently believed by many at the time and to this day to be the primary cause of the Haitian Revolution.
The harsh conditions inflicted on slaves in Saint-Domingue were also recognised as a cause for the Haitian Revolution outside the colony. Perhaps one of the most significant displays of the importance of harsh conditions to the Haitian Revolution was the 1794 'Proclamation of his Excellency Brigadier General Whyte,' commander of King George III's forces in Saint-Domingue, a force dispatched following the outbreak of the Haitian Revolution to establish British control in the fragile territory. In an attempt to do so by gaining the support of the former slaves, Whyte states "The [English] laws will protect them against cruelty and oppression," in contrast to the “cruel and oppressive” French laws.[17] He goes on to appeal to “the n****** who have been so long the dupes of the vile artifices of the commissioners.”[18] Using the promise of better conditions, it is evident that the British saw this as the cause of the Haitian Revolution. Preceding the outbreak of the Revolution, there was a vigorous campaign of abolitionist activity in France which demonstrates the extent to which parties detached from the direct struggle also understood the severity of the conditions. Many abolitionist French intellectuals petitioned the National Assembly. In a letter from the prominent lawyer Jean Louis de Viefville des Essars in 1790, he describes slavery as "a violation of all the laws of society and of humanity."[19] Essars’ vehement displays of dissatisfaction and others like it, most notably from the Society of the Friends of the Blacks, show how strongly some Frenchmen felt about the issue and their substantial knowledge of the conditions of slaves in Saint-Domingue. Therefore from exploring the reactions of the British authorities, French intellectuals and an independent British observer to the harsh conditions suffered by slaves in Saint-Domingue, in addition to the severity of the conditions themselves, one can extract that these conditions were seen as a cause of the Haitian Revolution.
By analysing contemporary beliefs on the causes of the Haitian Revolution, the intertwined factors of ideology, legal and civil rights and harsh conditions surface as the most notable and comprehensively encompassing of the motives of the revolutionaries. The ideology of liberty and French Revolutionary ideals, however, is the most important. Initially, the revolutionaries supported the revolutionary ideals and the French government with oaths of loyalty. The subsequent neglect of loyalty to France but pursuit of the same revolutionary ideals with even greater zeal demonstrates that France itself had little impact on Haitian Revolutionary ideology, but French Revolutionary ideology was of upmost significance. The issue of rights brewed the conception of revolutionary activity but was exclusive to the mulattoes since they felt qualified for electoral, political and other rights which they were denied, aspirations that slaves in chains and under whips could not identify with. Meanwhile, the issue of harsh conditions, while acting as the fuel that spurred the Haitians to persist in their chain-breaking mission, was only a grievance for these slaves since the mulattoes enjoyed relative material comfort and were often slaveowners themselves. Therefore, while rights and conditions were extremely significant and acknowledged as so by contemporaries, it was ideology that united all Haitians under the banner of revolution, with its paramount importance being solidified by the fact that it permeated aspects of the mulatto campaign for greater rights and encompassed the slaves' campaign against harsh conditions.
Footnotes [1] John Relly Beard (1853), The Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture, the Negro Patriot of Hayti: Comprising an Account of the Struggle for Liberty in the Island, and a Sketch of Its History to the Present Period, (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 2012), p. 46 [2] Ibid, p. 47 [3] Robin Blackburn, Haiti, Slavery, and the Age of the Democratic Revolution, (Virginia: Omohundro Institute, 2006), p. 643 [4] Jeremy D. Popkin, You Are All Free: The Haitian Revolution and the Abolition of Slavery, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011), p. 374 [5] Napoléon’s letter to Toussaint Louverture (1801), in William Cobbett, Cobbett’s Annual Register, Volume 1, (London: Cox and Baylis, 1802) [6] Memoir of General Toussaint Louverture, in John Feard, Toussaint L’Ouverture: A Biography and Autobiography, (Boston: James Redpath Publishers, 1863), p. 372 [7] Beaubrun Ardouin, Études sur l’Histoire d’Haïti (Vol. 6). Dézabry et Magdeleine, Paris, 1853-1860 https://www.marxists.org/history/haiti/1804/flag.htm (accessed 10/06/2020) [8] Philip D. Curtin, “The Declaration of the Rights of Man in Saint-Domingue, 1788-1791.” The Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 30, no. 2, 1950, p. 169 [9] Jack Richard Censer, Prelude to Power, The Parisian Radical Press, 1789-1791, (Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press, 2019), p. 86 [10] Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes, Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts, (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002), p. 133 [11] James Ferguson, Papa Doc, Baby Doc: Haiti and the Duvaliers, (New Jersey: John Wiley Publishing, 1988), pp. 2-3 [12] C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution, (London: Secker & Warburg, 1938), p. 9 [13] Ibid, pp. 170-171 [14] Marcus Rainsford, An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti, (1805) ed. Paul Youngquist, Gregory Pierrot, (London: Duke University Press, 2013), p. 253, 294 [15] The "Code Noir" (1685), in Michael Burger, Sources for the History of Western Civilization, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015), p. 470 [16] Rainsford, Black Empire of Hayti, p. 79 [17] Theophilus Gould Steward, The Haitian revolution, 1791 to 1804; or, Side lights on the French Revolution, (Charleston: Nabu Press, 2010), p. 78 [18] Ibid [19] Malick Ghachem, The Old Regime and the Haitian Revolution, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), p. 230
Bibliography
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Philip D. Curtin, “The Declaration of the Rights of Man in Saint-Domingue, 1788-1791.” The Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 30, no. 2, 1950
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James Ferguson, Papa Doc, Baby Doc: Haiti and the Duvaliers, (New Jersey: John Wiley Publishing, 1988)
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C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution, (London: Secker & Warburg, 1938)
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