The Haitian Revolution

by Toussaint Louverture, Nick Nesbitt (Editor), Jean-Bertrand Aristide (Introduction)

Toussaint L'Ouverture was the leader of the Haitian Revolution in the late eighteenth century, in which slaves rebelled against their masters and established the first black republic. In this collection of his writings and speeches, former Haitian politician Jean-Bertrand Aristide demonstrates L'Ouverture's profound contribution to the struggle for equality.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Biography, Theory

176 pages, Paperback

First published September 22, 2008

About the author

François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture (or L'Ouverture) was the best-known leader of the Haitian Revolution. He was born as Toussaint Bréda. He first served in the army of the Spanish part of the isle of Saint-Domingue, and fought the French as the leader of a guerrilla unit consisting of 4000 liberated slaves. The Spanish made him a general and he was given the nickname L'Ouverture (the opening), because of the successfull way he exploided gaps in the defense of the enemy. He later adopted this nickname as his surname.
After the abolition of slavery by the French in 1794, he switched sides and fought the Spanish and the British, who tried to take control.

By 1799 he was the de facto leader of the island, and negotiated trade treaties with Britain and the United States. In 1801, he promulgated an autonomist constitution for the colony, with himself as Governor-General for Life. In 1802 he was forced to resign by forces sent by Napoleon Bonaparte to restore French authority in the former colony. He was deported to France, where he died in 1803 of pneumonia. The Haitian Revolution continued under his lieutenant, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who declared independence on January 1, 1804. By then the French had lost two-thirds of the forces sent to the island toyellow fever.

Reviews

[Nicole ✨Reading Engineer✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was quite interesting as it detailed the laws that formed from the Haitian Revolution. I have to say I enjoyed it.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Toussaint L'Ouverture in his own words

This book contains letters and proclamations of Toussaint L'Ouverture which date from the very start of the revolution in San Domingue (Haiti) right up to the time of his imprisonment. Toussaint was known to tire out entire teams of staff who worked on producing his correspondence and it wasn't unusual for him to dictate 300 letters in a single day! So this represents just a small selection of the many he would have produced during his career.

He has had his fair share of criticism, as some of his actions were to cost him support from his power base and would ultimately lead to his demise at the hands of the French. But from the famous proclamation of 29 August 1793, where Toussaint introduces himself as L'Ouverture in the great cause of "liberty and equality", to letters sent to Bonaparte during this imprisonment in France, one can only be impressed by his intellect, political astuteness, military genius and commitment to the cause of freedom for all.

The introduction by the former Haitian president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, provides a summary of the life of Toussaint and attempts to bring into focus the legacy that he left behind. Included in this work is the Haitian Constitution of 1801 as well as letters written by Bonaparte to Toussaint. There is Bonaparte's telling analysis of the events of San Domingue from St Helena where he was in exile. He reflects on the folly of what he did which were against sound politics and resulted in the French losing almost all their holdings in the Americas.

Overall this is definitely worth reading especially for those interested in the revolution that was fought to make all free and to understand more about the man who was one of its key architects.

[§ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another of Verso's over-priced, slim volumes with dubious editorial remarks. Still, this will be a good resource compilation, and former Haitian president Aristide's introduction very interestingly suggests that Toussaint might be interpreted as the grandfather of liberation theology. Contains the latter's "Memoir" [dictated as he was dying in a dungeon, by order of the treacherous Premiere Consul].

[Benjamin Britton · Rating 5 out of 5]

“In 1804 Haiti emerged as the first black republic from the world’s only successful slave revolution...

From the transatlantic slave trade to today’s global system of economic slavery, broad ranges of players have worked to maintain colonialism. Those I would call mental slaves, the colonized who nonetheless defend the interest of white colonizers, have always played a crucial role in upholding slavery, then and now...

The name of God has been used strategically over four centuries to try to justify slavery. Yet academic discourse on slavery tends to focus much more on the political than the theological dimensions of the slave system...

Since 1492, and continuing to this day, colonialism and neocolonialism have been a permanent source of intrinsic disorder to Haiti. Internally, mental slaves from the Haitian elite have generated intrinsic pathologies throughout the country’s social fabric that have blocked sustainable development...

From August 1791 until his kidnapping by French forces in 1802, Toussaint was propelled into the public arena but this vision of universal liberty...

The vision of the rebel slaves, of course, was radically different: to eradicate the colonial problem the slaves began by burning down the plantations- the engine of the slave system- and by courageously fighting the colonial masters...

This legacy is with us still. More than 200 years later, Haitian identity is still split, with the great mass of the Haitian people on one side, and a small elite who remain identified with today’s colonizers on the other...

Since the moment the enslaved Africans of Haiti rose up, colonialists and neocolonialists have used every means at their disposal, notably the pens of historians, to keep the world from knowing the truth of the Haitian Revolution, and specifically of how French colonizers kidnapped Toussaint, and assassinated his character and then killed him in Fort de Joux...

What is the theology of liberation, and what do we mean when we speak of a ‘preferential option for the poor’?
...The option for the poor is preferential, not exclusive. There is resonance here with Toussaint’s impulse, throughout his life, and notably in the constitution he drafted, to put the slaves first, but to include all...

While Columbus enslaved in the name of God, Toussaint freed in the name of love, which for us is another name for God. This is Toussaint’s theological legacy...

Predictably, colonization brought genocide and abject poverty two Haiti’s first inhabitants; and the African slaves introduced to replace them were compelled to work like animals. The blood of Africans and the labor of Toussaint’s people caused the colony of Saint Domingue to flourish economically, and it became the richest of the French colonies...

With this history in mind, can there be any doubt that debt cancellation is both vital to Haiti’s struggle to eradicate poverty, and morally justified?”

Jean-Bertrand Aristide

———————————————————

“For Toussaint L’Ouverture and the former slaves of the St. Domingue, the ‘liberty’ and ‘equality’ of 1789 we’re not only the ideological falsehoods of the bourgeoisie‘s bid for power that Marx would later assail. They also offered a previously inconceivable opportunity to upset the (symbolic) economy of the 18th century world-system. In their very emptiness, these concepts harbored a latent operative efficacy.”

Nick Nesbitt
———————————————————

“ you know, brothers, that I have undertaken this vengeance, and that I want liberty and equality to reign in Saint Domingue.”

“We are black, it is true, but tell us, gentlemen, you who are so judicious, what is the law that says the black man must belong to and be the property of the white man? Certainly you will not be able to make us see where that exists, if it is not in your imaginations- always ready to form a new (phantasms) so long as they are to your advantage...

we are equals then, by natural right, and if nature pleases itself to diversify colours within the human race, it is not a crime to be born black nor an advantage to be white.”

“But a somewhat late experience opened my eyes to these perfidious protectors. Having perceive their treachery, I saw clearly that they intended for us to set upon each other to diminish our number and to enchain those who remained to return them to their former slavery...
Let us unite forever, therefore, and, forgetting the past, let us seek henceforth only to crush our enemies and to avenge ourselves against our treacherous neighbors.”

“If it is possible that the English have managed to fool you, believe me, my dear brother, abandon them, unite with the good republicans, and, all together, let us rid our land of the royalists. They are scoundrels who wish to return us to the shameful chains that we had so much difficulty breaking.”

“Let the sacred flame of liberty that we have one lead all of our acts. [...] Let us go forth to plant the tree of liberty, breaking the chains of those our brothers still held captive under the shameful yoke of slavery...

[Let us overcome] the barriers that separate nations, and unite the human species into a single brotherhood. We seek only to bring to men the liberty that [God] has given them, and that other men have taken from them only by transgressing his immutable will.”

“She may be certain that so long as the blood flows in our veins, we shall only strive for the defense of the colony and of liberty, and to cast away all agitators and enemies.”

“Could men who once enjoy the benefits of liberty look on calmly while it is taken from them! They bore their chains when they knew no condition of life better than that of slavery. But today when they have left it, if they had a thousand lives, they would sacrifice them all rather than be subjected again into slavery. But no, the hands has broken our chains will not subject us to them again.”

“There cannot exist slaves on this territory, servitude is therein forever abolished. All men are born, live and die free and French.”

“Bear in mind that the soil bathed with our sweat must not furnish our enemies with the smallest aliment. Tear up the roads with shot; throw corpses and horses into all the fountains; burn and annihilate everything, and order that those who have come to reduce us to slavery may have before their eyes the image of that hell which they deserve.”

“If Gen. Leclerc went to the colony to do evil, it should not be charged upon me. It is true that only one of us can be blamed; but however little one may wish to do me justice, it is clear that he is the author of all the evils the island has suffered since, without warning me, he entered the colony, which he found in a state of prosperity, fell upon the inhabitants, who were at their work, contributing to the welfare of the community, and shed their blood upon their native soil. This is the true source of the evil.”

“Yet Gen. Leclerc enjoys liberty, and I am in a dungeon.”

“First Consul, Father of all soldiers, upright judge, defender of innocence, pronounce my destiny. My wounds are deep; apply to them the healing remedy which will prevent them from opening anew; you are the physician; I rely entirely upon your justice and wisdom!”

Toussaint L’Ouverture

[William West · Rating 4 out of 5]

Toussaint is a fascinating historical figure, less known than he should be due, at least in part, to lingering racism in the cannons of revolutionary and political history.

Born a slave in Haiti, Toussaint became his owner's favorite and was eventually freed. His former master set him up in business and Toussaint became an estate and slave owner himself. His class-status, and its indebtedness to the slave-owners, haunted his political development.

When the slaves, inspired by the egalitarian ideology of the Jacobins, began to rise-up, Toussaint sided with the oppressed and freed his own slaves, but demanded that any social change not come at the expense of the ruling class. A brilliant general, he led resistance to imperialist invasion from England and Spain and agreed to come into the fold of French colonialism only when the Jacobins, in part due to the pressure of the Haitian resistance, agreed to abolish slavery in the colonies.

In his writings, Toussaint equated freedom and equality in strictly capitalist-republican terms. All humans must be free and equal, but equality was defined as equal access to opportunity to rise in the market economy. The constitution Toussaint conceived is an extraordinary document. In it, Toussaint invented the concepts of associated statehood and truly universal equality. It was the first constitution that allowed for universal suffrage regardless of race or gender! The elected assembly, however, was mostly an advisory body to a near-all-powerful executive who would respect property rights but control almost all aspects of the law and economy... a position constitutionally guaranteed for life to, yes, Toussaint. He required all the poor, mostly the Blacks, to work on the farms of one of the estates, owned mostly by the slaves' former masters, albeit for a wage. Toussaint's constitution was the first truly egalitarian state document in the world, but it also founded one of the first modern totalitarian states.

Toussaint was, perhaps, the first of a particular type of modern political figure. Legitimately concerned with national liberation, his class interests put him at odds with the interests of the majority of his people. He was thus drawn to despotism even in the process of liberating his people from colonialism. For his subjects, surely, he was seen as both the manifestation of their oppression as individuals and liberation as a national people. A fore-runner, perhaps, of such figures as Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi.

[John Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Haitian revolution is one of the most important uprisings of the subjugated in the modern age. And this revolution produced one of the greatest leaders of the oppressed and disenfranchised - Toussaint Louverture. Toussaint Louverture’s greatness shines through in this collection of his writings, especially with how this former black slave both embraced and critiqued the French Revolution. Louverture could embrace the universal sentiments of freedom, liberty and comradeship that were articulated by white French revolutionaries of the time, as well as exposing the limits of freedom and solidarity as defined by the French Revolution. But rather than decrying the French Revolution as a farce due to the French Republic’s exclusion of black slaves with its declaration of universal human rights, Louverture instead called for a radical expansion of the concept of universalism and liberty that sprang from the French Revolution. And for such an emancipatory universalism to be enacted, Louverture was aware of the need for both an organised violent revolution alongside an intellectual and propagandistic battle of ideas.

[Alexis Chateau · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book as research for my upcoming novel, The Moreau Witches. It was an enlightening read, but will probably only interest a historian or someone, like me, who needed the information for a specific purpose. It is actual translations of letters and speeches of Toussaint, and does not tell a coherent story, per se, as much as it fills in gaps if you already know the tale.

A part of me is glad I read this, and yet a part of me regrets it. This opened up my eyes to new aspects of the revolution we never never had time to cover in my classes, which was amazing. However, it also humanises Toussaint, and takes away that quality of the invincible hero with which so many West Indians think of him.

A great read for anyone truly interested in the truth of the Haitian Revolution.

[candy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great read. Some true history in action - the rise and fall of the St. Dominigue republic, the first to constitutionally outlaw discrimination based on color, and its ruler, a figure of great intrigue and power, Toussaint L'Ouverture. You get an inside track to the hubris and social dynamics at play, and the correspondences between statesmen and his memoir of the battles read like a fantasy novel for how foreign they are to a 21st-century college student. A really thorough first-person perspective on the Haitian Revolution, a great resource for anyone interested in that topic and just a great read in general.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended for anyone interested in a chronological compilation of L'Ouverture's thoughts and communications during this transformative time. The editorial additions provided enough context for those who aren't experts on the Haitian Revolution, while not being too overbearing. In addition, the introduction by Jean-Bertrand Aristide provides meaningful contemporary context. A quick read, would recommend picking up on one of Verso's frequent sales, as $19.95 seems a bit much.

[Chetna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Toussaint L’Ouverture: Leader of the Haitian Revolution.

Jean-Bertrand Aristide: former Haitian president. And great writer.
Aristide shares letters, speeches, proclaimations and constitutions written during Toussaint’s time as General.

▫️ A superb written introduction challenges thought provoking, further insight into the causes of slavery such as religion, poverty, mental slaves and economic exploitation.

[Ali · Rating 2 out of 5]

Look, it would be really petty to complain that a leader of arguably the first really successful defeat of slavery is just a really boring/discomfort-making writer, so this could be a short review. I'm glad this book exists, including the passionate intro from Aristide - a giant in his own right - but this wasn't exactly either fun or enlightening reading. Toussaint wasn't a perfect leader, and often when he was putting pen to paper, it was in the imperfect moments.

[Mich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked it up on the Verso Sale, maybe I should’ve done more research on what the book is about and how it’s written bc I took the title at face value. I thought it would be a first hand or second hand account of the Haitian revolution, it was more like an intro by the editor and then the bulk of the book was comprised of Toussaint’s letters, or letters to him, with some key info caveats.

[Samantha Garrad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really good intro for background and beginnings of L'Ouverture involvement

[Sebastien · Rating 4 out of 5]

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