The history of liberty in France and of slave emancipation in San Domingo is one and indivisible (P61). Effect of the French Revolution on Haiti:
In 1789, San Domingo (Haiti) was France's most profitable colony, perhaps the most profitable colony any where, at any time. It was the world's largest producer of coffee and it supplied half of Europe with sugar, coffee and cotton. However, its wealth was produced by slaves, and as it was the world's most prosperous colony, it was the most brutal colony. As Eric Williams noted, by 1789 this ‘pearl of the Caribbean’ had become, for the vast majority of its inhabitants, ‘the worst hell on earth’.
News of the fall of the Bastille reached San Domingo in September 1789. The planters (rich slave owners) most heavily indebted to the maritime bourgeoisie were the first to join. The Exclusive was particularly burdensome for the planters and caused many to go into deep debt. The Exclusive set prices, dictated that the colonists could trade only with France, and even chose the shipping company. The planters knew they could make significantly more by selling to England. They resented The Exclusive and hated Royalty's oppressive representatives, the bureaucracy, who ruled the colony.
With the French Revolution came talk of liberty and equality. The French bourgeoisie understood that slavery was abhorrent and a betrayal of all they claimed to stand for. But in 1789, France was in desperate need of money and dependent on the revenues from its small colony, Haiti, that produced more than all its other colonies combined. Parliament tried to forget the colony’s sadistic system of slavery that produced this wealth. Aware that the colony could not exist without slavery, the French decided it best to ignore the colonial issue. But the betrayal of principles would take the air out of the revolution: The colonial question again and again split the bourgeoisie, made it ashamed of itself, destroyed its morale and weakened its capacity to deal with the great home problems which faced it. ...the colonists wanted to get colonial questions removed from general discussion... (The Black Jacobins P70).
The colonists tried to emulate the French Revolutionaries, excluding of course, any talk of principles. Lofty principles had no place on San Domingo. While in France there was talk of liberation and equality, in San Domingo there was no such talk because liberation and equality would be the end of the French rule of Haiti. For the colonist, prosperity justified their brutality.
Glossary (in process)
Helpful links
The Louverture Project (TLP)
Glossary of the French Revolution
small whites (Petits blancs): The petits blancs were the poor, white underclass of Saint-Domingue, including artisans and laborers. The petit blancs had an intense hatred for the usually much wealthier group of the mulatto affranchis, whith whom they had to compete economically.
big whites (Grands Blancs): The grands blancs were the wealthy white upper class of Saint-Domingue, including planters, bureaucrats, and so on. It was this group that owned most plantations and slaves in the French colony.
Patriots: the Assembly of St Marc itself, the Patriots, as they called themselves
Royalists: in the context of the French Revolution Royalists (also Monarchists)... include both supporters of absolute and constitutional monarchy.
National Assembly
Previous Chapters,
here.
Chapter 3
Parliament and Property
Overwhelmed by the revolution at home, the Monarchy could not help its colonial representatives. The French installed a government called the Bureaucracy. It consisted of a Governor and an intendent along with their staff. The installed government was extremely unpopular with the white planters on the island. The royalists were out-numbered and on their own. To escape lynching, Barbe de Marbois, the Intendant, and some of the other most unpopular bureaucrats were forced to flee to France.
Tired of the Monarchy's oppressive bureaucracy, the patriots stopped taking orders from the royalist governor. The Provincial Committee claimed control of affairs and planned an election for the North Province. In January the minister gave them authority to form a colonial assembly, and three Provincial bodies summoned this Assembly to meet in the town of St Marc P63.
San Domingo was divided by class, race and various political factions that would all wrestle for control of the island, switching sides and forming and breaking alliances. Throughout the Revolution, the groups would make and brake alliances as it served the interests of the group. As soon as the small whites heard of the fall of the Bastille, sensing an opportunity to move up in status, they deserted their friends the bureaucracy and joined the revolution.
With no hope of help from France and without the small whites, the bureaucracy was forced to turn to the Mulattoes. The Governor instructed the bureaucrats to adopt a new attitude towards them. "It has become more necessary than ever not to give them any cause for offence, to encourage them and to treat them as friends and whites."
The retreat of race prejudice had begun. Sad though it may be, that is the way that humanity progresses. The anniversary orators and the historians supply the prose-poetry and the flowers. (The Black Jacobins, P63)
Helped by the brutality of the property-less small whites, who wanted to exterminate the Mulattoes and take their property, the Bureaucracy's plan succeeded. The rich whites had made overtures to the mulattoes in the beginning but with the entry of the small whites it was no longer necessary so that changed. The mulattoes joined the counter-revolution.
There were only 30,000 whites in Haiti then. Between Mulattoes and the free blacks there were also about the same number. The Mulattoes and the free blacks would soon out number the whites. The Mulattos and the Planters both rich slave owners had common interests. They tried to convince the planters to unite with them, so together they could hold the slaves down.
In France on October 22nd a Mulatto delegation presented the case for Mulatto rights to the National Assembly:
the National Assembly had received them, and the president, in reply to their petition had said that no part of the nation would appeal for its rights in vain to the assembled representatives of the French people. P 64
On December 4th, the Count Charles de Lameth, in revolutionary enthusiasm uttered the famous words:
"I am one of the greatest proprietors in San Domingo, but I declare to you that I would prefer to lose all I possess there rather than violate the principles that justice and humanity have consecrated. I declare myself both for the admission of the half-castes into the administrative assemblies and for the liberty of the blacks" Not only political rights for Mulattoes but the abolition of slavery. P64
News of this drove the San Domingo whites into a violent frenzy. How could they know that these words were merely spoken in a Pickwickian sense, that Lameth, a right-wing Liberal, would be one of the most tenacious enemies of both political rights for the Mulattoes and abolition (P64).
The whites did what they knew best: terrorized the mulattoes. When a mulatto, Lacombe, claimed social and economic rights for his people he was hung on the spot. The small whites, jealous of the rich mulattoes, were out for blood. The rich whites were getting concerned by the small whites’ behavior. When the planters in the North invited the mulattoes to the assemblies, the small whites refused to let them in. One assembly in the West Province went as far as to declare that the men of colour would not be allowed to take the civic oath with out adding to the general formula the promise of respect for the whites (P65).
The mulattoes of Artibonite and Verrettes were rich and numerous and refused to make any such oath. Instead they called for an insurrection. The small whites were making the rich planters nervous. Having briefly been treated as equal must have gotten to the small whites’ heads. They saw the revolution as an opportunity to move up. The rich planters did not like this unruly ambition of the previously docile small whites. In order to win the elections for the new Assembly, the small whites used violence and intimidation against the big whites. The planters began to look more to the previously hated royalists, and towards a compromise with the rich Mulattoes.
News of the fall of the Bastille made it to San Domingo in September, 1789 and now, just six months after the news arrived, alliances were crumbling. The whites were turning on each other.
The colonial Assembly considered itself to be like the Assembly in France. But the coarse San Domingo whites had no spark of that exalted sentiment which drove the revolutionary bourgeoisie elsewhere to dignify its seizure of power with the Declaration of Independence or the Rights of Man (P 66). The patriots fought for an end of the exclusive and the oppressive Bureaucracy.
The Assembly of the North Province had interests in France. They represented the maritime bourgeois who profited from the Exclusive. In St. Marc's constitution the colonists would be given last word on the millions of francs owed to France. When the patriots passed a decree condemning the usury of the merchants and lawyers of Le Cap the Provincial Assembly of the North (of course on the highest grounds of patriotism) broke with St Marc instantly, withdrawing, its members (P 66). But they still both opposed the royalists bureaucracy. The maritime representatives were loyal to the French Revolutionairies and so they still, like the Patriots, hated the monarchy's Bureaucracy:
San Domingo, therefore, had three white parties: the royalist bureaucracy, in other words the counter-revolution, growing stronger every day as the rich planters continued to withdraw from the Assembly of St Marc; the Assembly of St Marc itself, the Patriots, as they called themselves; and the Provincial Assembly of the North, watching both sides but for the time being supporting the Government as the link with France.
All three despised the mulattoes, but all three needed them. The Assembly of St Marc wanted independence and, being in need of support, reached out to the Mulattoes. When rejected the Patriots returned to the belief that free men of colour were contrary to the laws of God and man and should be exterminated (P67).
The French bourgeoisie was bound to face the colonial question some time but it dodged the issue as long as it could (67).
The inconsistency between the revolution’s intentions and results (maintenance of slavery) of the revolution in the colonies weakened France and strengthened the insurrection in Saint-Dominigue, helping the ultimate cause of Haiti’s independence.
In 1789, Raimond, the Mulatto leader, went to the Club Massiac and asked for support of the rights they would be demanding from the National Assembly. The Club rejected him, but wanted independence, so secretly tried to bargain. Raimond said no so now all hope lay with the a National Assembly.
The white Colonists were united against allowing Mulattoes any political rights. They insisted that granting mulatto rights would lead to the end of slavery.
The storming of the Bastille not only intimidated the King it also frightened the French bourgeoisie (some were royalists who wanted a constitutional Monarchy not equality for the masses). To hold down the poor the bourgeoisie formed the National Guard. But the bourgeoisie hastened also to profit by the blow against the monarchy. It drew up the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, claiming that all men were born free and equal, and abolishing the caste distinctions of feudalism forever. The Constituent voted the final draft almost unanimously... (P68).
It was shortly after the declaration was signed, with calls for justice and equality still ringing in the air, that the delegation of Mulattoes was received by the National Assembly. On October 22nd, led by Raimond, the Mulattoes not only presented claims to the Right of Man, but on a practical note they offered six million dollars as security for the National Debt. The bourgeoisie did not know what to do, did not know what to say (P68).
Raimond, the leader, was a distinguished Parisian lawyer, Ogé was a member of the Friends of the Negro and a friend of the Abbe Gregoire, Brissot, the Marquis de Condorcet, and all that brilliant band. Such were his talents that it was said of him that there was no position to which he could not aspire. How could an Assembly which had just passed the Rights of Man refuse to relieve these men from the injustices under which they suffered? They based their claim not only on abstract grounds but on their wealth, and offered six millions as security for the National Debt. It was an unanswerable case, and the president gave them his cordial if careful welcome. (P68)
The colonists would have none of it. They knew that Mulattoes rights’ would lead to the end of slavery and the colony could not exist without slavery. They threatened the bourgeoisie with independence. ...the maritime bourgeois, frightened for their millions of investments and their trade, went red in the face and put the Rights of Man in their pockets whenever the colonial question came up(68-9).
However France's bourgeoisie was divided on the issue. The radicals sided with the mulattoes. The Assembly split into extreme right and extreme left with wobblers in the middle.
On the right were the colonial deputies, the absentee proprietors, the agents of the colonists, and the representatives of the maritime bourgeois... (P 69).
The colonists wanted freedom form the Exclusive and the end of the bureaucracy on the colony. The maritime wanted the end of bureaucracy as well, but parted with the colonists on the Exclusive. They were united against rights for mulattoes! Both parties were agreed on the necessity for what they called "order" in the colonies,and the colonists, as men who knew, said that "order" could only be maintained if the Mulattoes were kept in their place (P69).
The Colonial deputies in the Assembly used every method available to delay the discussion of rights for mulattoes. They conspired with the maritime bourgeois to prevent Mulattoes and Negroes from going back to San Domingo, and even extended this prohibition to whites who were sympathetic to the Mulatto cause (P69).
The radicals led by the Friends of the Negro proposed rights for Mulattoes and the gradual abolition of slavery. But they were dismissed as dreamers. However, they were right both morally and practically. France could not continue to claim the Rights of Man at home, institute slavery on its colonies and maintain the spirit needed to fuel the revolution. The radicals’ strength lay with the masses and the Paris masses were not yet interested in the colonial question, though they gave a general support to the demands of the Mulattoes (P70).
But except for a few half-hearted attempts by the Friends of the Negro, everybody conspired to forget the slaves P70.
The Right had won the battle but the colonial issue would not go away. It would destroy the morale of the revolutionaries. The colonists wanted the question removed from debate.
The Mulattoes continued to petition for their rights. On January 30th, 1790, the Mulattoes, sponsored by the Friends of the Negro, petitioned the Assembly again. "Protestants, comedians, Jews, the relations of criminals," all had received their political rights from the Assembly (P70).
When the Assembly learned of increasing Mulatto and slave uprisings, they were forced to act. On March 2nd a Commission was assigned to review the Mulatto's petition and and report back in five days. There was little effort to make the Commission look impartial. Of its 12 members 10 were invested in some way in colonial trade. And the exemplary bourgeois Barnave, a close friend of Lameth, and the allied with absentee landlords and noblemen of the Club Massiac.
Barnave's commission had the report complete March 8th. Speaking for the commission he proposed that, upon the full Assembly's approval, the colonists be allowed to work out its own constitution and to modify the Exclusive. Neither the word slave nor Mulattoe appeared in the decree. Barnave did not want to offend the Assembly who couldn't bear to hear the words. Instead of mentioning the words the Assembly so dreaded, ...Barnave put the "colonists and their property» under the special safeguard of the Nation, and slaves were property (P72).
The Assembly was delighted by Barnaves decree. The abolitionists prepared for the debate on the decree. The decree did not address the issue of rights for Mulattoes and free blacks. Abbé Grégoire pointed out that Article 4 granted the right to vote to "all persons" 25 yrs old who met property and residential requirements. Gregoire inquired if this did not include the Mulattoes. The colonial deputy was the first to protest. There were cries from the floor to halt the discussion immediately. Among the deputies who called to end discussion was the same Lameth who had given the eloquent but disingenuous speech in favor of equality. The House agreed the discussion should end. The bourgeoisie would not confront the issue, they sent the decree as it was and hoped for the best.
News of the March 8th decree sent the colonists into a fury. Desperate to maintain the status quo, the colonists claimed to have already proven that Mulattoes were not people. For the colonists granting Mulattos rights would be signing their own death-warrant. They vowed never to grant political rights to a "bastard and degenerate race." And a new reign of terror against the Mulattoes began.
The St Marc patriots were losing deputies. The rich planters began to move towards the royalists. Before long St Marc lost over half of its original 212 deputies. This encouraged the Bureaucracy so much so that they decided to finish the revolution in San Domingo.
The patriots had no force. A group of 85 patriots went to France to plead the patriots case. In their absence the Bureaucracy maintained control. The fighting stopped but all sides sharpened knifes awaiting word from France.
The bureaucracy banned prohibited Mulattoes from wearing the royalist white cockade. Rejected by France and humiliated at home the Mulattoes organized a revolt.
Spurred on by the Friends of the Negro, Vincent Ogé, left Paris to lead the Mulattoes call for rights on San Domingo. The Friends of the Negro provided money and arms for the insurrection. And in this he was aided and abetted by no less a person than Clarkson. He his brother and Chavannes arrived in San Domingo on October 21st, 1790.
Ogé a politician was not prepared to lead a revolution. Thousands of Mulattoes were ready to be called to action. Instead of calling on supporters, Ogé made proclamations to the authorities in Le Cap. He asked that they recognize the March 8th decree. Instead of threatening them with the raising of the slaves, good Liberal as he was, he assured them in advance that he had no intention of doing so and appealed to the common interests of whites and Mulattoes as slave-owners (P74).
While Oge made proclamations and committed no crimes, Chavannes massacred a few whites. The islands whites drew together. A storm prevented the Mulattoes from assembling. Oge and a few hundred men charged on as best they could but out-numbered they were quickly defeated. They fled to the Spanish territory but were extradited. Oge and his men were tortured with the typical depraved methods of the slave owning colonists.
They condemned them to be led by the executioner to the main door of the parish church, bare-headed and in their shirts, tied by a cord round the neck, and there on their knees, with wax candles in their hands, to confess their crimes and beg forgiveness, after which they were to be led to the parade-ground, and there have their arms, legs and elbows broken on a scaffold, after which they were to be bound on wheels, their faces turned to the sky, to remain thus while it pleased God to keep them alive. Their heads were then to be cut off, and their goods and property confiscated. … The whole Provincial Assembly of the North attended the executions in state. The brilliant Oge and his success in Paris had been the pride of all Mulatto San Domingo, and the malevolence of his trial and execution was a searing memory in Mulatto minds. 74-75
It was news of Oge's torture that awoken all of France to the colonial question. The masses supported equality for the Mulattoes and abolition of slavery. An outrage to all, stories of Oge's heroism were told and retold all across France. Up until then the French bourgeoisie had not been pressured by the masses on the Colonial issue.
Meanwhile in France, the Constituent (which took over after the National Assembly) refused the patriots’ demands and ordered the Assembly of St Marc be broken up and new elections held. France sent two regiments to help the Bureaucracy enforce the order. But still no mention of Mulattoes rights. All white San Domingo remained united against rights for Mulattoes: And, again, swore that if Mulattoes were given rights it would be the 1st step to the abolition of slavery and the end of the wealthy colony. The French bourgeoisie, heavily invested in the colony, saw their point.
The big French bourgeoisie, who wanted a constitutional monarchy, and for the poor to stay in their place, were done with the revolution. The Constitution divided the masses into active--those who had a property qualification-and passive--the poor who had fought in the streets (P75). The radicals depended on the masses and the masses were chained and muzzled. For now the Royalists had it their way.
In April 1791 the Paris masses were back on the offensive, When the Royal family tried to leave Paris the people blocked the carriage until the royal family turned around. It was during this turbulent time that news of Oge's torture reached Paris.
On April 7th the issue colonial issue came before the House. It had to be addressed. The abolitionists were granted four days to prepare. The debate it is said was one of the greatest that took place. Robespierre laid out the hypocrisy of claiming Rights of Man at home while maintaining slavery on its colonies and the dangers it presented.
Robespierre made the deputies aware of the dangerous game they were playing in so flagrant a breach of the very principle.s on which their own position rested:
"....You urge without ceasing the Rights of Man, but you believe in them so little yourselves that you have sanctified slavery constitutionally (there was murmuring in the Assembly). The supreme interest of the nation and of the colonies is that you remain free and that you do not overturn with your own hands the foundations of liberty. Perish the colonies (violent interruptions) if the price is to be your happiness, your glory, your liberty. I repeat it-perish the colonies if the colonists wish by menaces to force us to decree that which is most suitable to their interests. I declare in the name of the Assembly, in the name of those members of this Assembly who do not wish to overturn the Constitution, in the name of the entire nation which desires freedom, that we will sacrifice to the colonial deputies neither the nation nor the colonies nor the whole of humanity." (P76-77)
Robespierre made a grand and stirring speech, yet, incredibly, it turns out, that the objections to slavery and inequality were to the words not the actual actions. It was magnificent but it was not abolition. It was only the word slavery Robespierre was objecting to-not the thing (P77). Nevertheless, the speech was on all minds, but the House agreed to leave it alone.
Raimond the Mulatto spoke next. While not elegant he was direct. He said that the Mulattoes must be given rights to unit with whites and keep the slaves down.
The debate was followed by all of Paris and lasted a full four days. The rich maritime bourgeois were influential among the uninformed and undecided deputies.
But The Jacobins and all of the other popular bodies were infuriated by the pro-slavery propaganda from the Club Massaic.The political rank and file were strong supporters of the Mulattoes. The sides were evenly matched. It appeared the debate would never end. Finally at the end of the fourth day a compromise was suggested. Every Mulattoe whose parents were born free would be able to vote. Only 400 qualified but it was a start. It was a small victory but had huge implications. For once a single colored man had got his rights, the victory of the rest was only a matter of work and time. (P77-8).
The Colonial Deputies could not allow any such compromise. The colonists and the maritime bourgeois conspired to sabotage the decree. The bourgeoisie was inexperienced and did not purge the ministerial offices of royalists. The colonial deputies refused to go to work. So the decree could not be enacted. And tragically before the decree was carried out Barnave and his group took power and refused the decree.
The decree lay cold in the offices of the Minister, and on the night of June 20th the revolution swung backwards, opening the door to Barnave and his friends their chance (P79). When King Luis went abroad with plans of a counter revolution, he left behind a document denouncing the very constitution he swore to uphold. News of the Kings betrayal once again stirred the Paris Masses. But this time the Revolution would take a turn backwards. The bourgeoisie were tired of the unruly masses. Barnave took advantage of the confusion and grabbed control. Barnave instructed the National Guard to re-arm but not against the Monarchy against its own people. It was time to put the masses in place.
He [Barnave] reminded the Assembly of what had happened on July 14th ( the day which had unleashed the revolution and put these gentlemen where they were) . The bourgeoisie must arm, not against the King, but to put the masses in their place. He called for the arming of the citizens, i.e., the bourgeois National Guard. Under Barnave's firm guidance the Constituent transferred the executive power into its own hands.... (P79)
Barnave, the brothers Lameth, Malouet and Vaublanc (both of whom we have seen proving that the slaves were happy), comprised the Feuillants or King's party and dominated the Assembly (P79).
In August Barnave received word of the colonists’ violent reaction to the decree. San Domingo Governor Blanchelande who was in the pocket of the Club Massiac, urged Barnave to stop the decree. The colonial deptuties and royalists in the ministries offices had blocked the decree from officially reaching the colony up until now. Blanchelande warned that the official decree would cause calamity and it could not be allowed to reach the colony. In the last week of the Constituents existence With the Feullants (the Kings men) in control Barnave rescinded the May 15th decree. In his speech rescinding the May 15th decree, Barnave foolishly tells truth.
"This regime," said Bamave. "is absurd, but it is established and one cannot handle it roughly without unloosing the greatest disorder. This regime is oppressive, but it gives a livelihood to several million Frenchmen. This regime is barbarous, but a still greater barbarism will be the result if you interfere with it with out the necessary knowledge." Bourgeois hypocrisy is not seldom the truest wisdom, and a great empire and honest minds go ill together. Bamave was honest but a fool. Instead of taking a leaf from his friends across the Channel and boldly stating that the Constituent was Withholding the rights in the truest interests of the Mulattoes them selves, he rubbed the Constituent on the raw with every word and gave ammunition to his enemies in Paris and in San Domingo. But the Assembly, on the defensive against
the revolution, yielded and on September 24th rescinded the decree of May 15th. On September 28th another decree ordered the departure of new Commissioners for San Domingo, and on the 29th the Constituent ceased to sit. P80
The colonial issue demoralized the bourgeoisie. They had no color prejudice; they were simply businessmen.
... Hitherto, says Jaures, the revolutionary bourgeois had been reasonably honest. If they had limited the franchise, at least they had done so openly. But to avoid giving the Mulattoes the Rights of Man they had to descend to low dodges and crooked negotiations which destroyed their revolutionary integrity. It was the guilty conscience of the Constituent on the colonial question that placed it at the mercy of the reactionaries when Louis fled. Undoubtedly but for the compromises of Barnave and all his party on the colonial question, the general attitude of the Assembly after the Bight to Varennes would have been different," But it was not the Mulattoes they feared, it was the slaves. Slavery corrupted the society of San Domingo and had now corrupted the French bourgeoisie in the first flush and pride of its political inheritance. P81
Revolutions are won in phases and decided in the streets. They are merely measured in parliaments. The radicals joined the Jacobin Club and would lead the revolution to its conclusions. Barnave and the Lameths were once members but were banned for the party they played in denying Mulattoes rights.
The slaves were watching. There were up-risings here and there. but most importantly the slaves were quietly meeting and organizing. The men who would lead the slaves to freedom were not yet active. Dessalines, already 40, worked as a slave for a black master. Christophe worked at a rich hotel were he listened to the customers conversations. Toussaint had read some revolutionary literature.
Toussaint alone read his Raynai. "A courageous chief only is wanted." He said afterwards that, from the time the troubles began, he felt he was destined for great things. Exactly what, however, he did not know; he and his brother slaves only watched their masters destroy one another, as Africans watched them in 1914-1918, and will watch them again before long.
In 1790 whites of San Domingo were occupied fighting each other for control of the colony. They were not thinking about the slaves or the Mulattoes.
The weakness of the Government had unloosed the rivalries of great whites and small whites, and around the slogans of liberty and equality white cockades and red fought for supremacy, with the special violence of slave-owners and the ardent temperament of the tropics.
In March two regiments were sent to San Domingo. The patriots went to elaborate levels to win them over. They told the solidies the government was the counter-revolution which was true. It worked so well that De Mauduit's own soldiers who had been loyal for years turned on him. They murdered him and mutilated his body. As much as the small whites hated the Mulattoes they welcomed them when fighting a mutual enemy. Rigaud, a leader of the Mulattoes who had been imprisoned by De Mauduit, was liberated by the crowd.
The French regiments were real revolutionaries and they embraced the Mulattoes and slaves. Further they informed them that the Assembly in France had determined all men free and equal.
Throughout Port-au-Prince slaves were picking up arms. They fought with fierce determination. The colonists responded to the uprising with their normal depraved sadistic brutality.
They lynched Mulattoes, they stamped upon the French flag, they abjured France, they could not mention France or Frenchmen without oaths and curses. The new Assembly which was to replace the broken Assembly of St Marc met at Leogane in early August and passed a series of resolutions designed to ensure independence. In order to be nearer the centre of affairs the members decided to transfer to Le Cap where the Governor was. But some of the deputies never reached there, being killed on the way by the revolting Negroes of the North.... Neglected and ignored by all the politicians of every brand and persuasion, they had organised on their own and struck for freedom at last. P83-84
RunawayRose and I alternate writing about chapters every other week. However, more diarists would be wonderful. If you are interested in joining on either a regular basis or you want to write about a particular chapter, please leave comment.
Public Archive has excellent articles about
Haiti: The Black Jacobins and
The Black Jacobins Online
Haiti slavery- Indulgence had the white colonial in its grip from childhood. "I want an egg," said a colonial child. "There are none." "Then I want two." This notorious anecdote was characteristic. (The Black Jacobins, P29)
Reliable Haiti Sources
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