Haiti and the Age of Democratic Revolution “The Armed Black”

Haitian Revolution,

John Trumball, “The Surrender of Cornwallis”

Annual Slave Imports to Saint Domingue

Saint Domingue Society  Grande Blancs  Petite Blancs  Gens de Couleurs  Slaves  Whites: 25,000  Free Colored: 25,000  Slaves: 450,000

Versailles

Estates General, Paris, 1789

National Assembly

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen Approved August 26, 1789  1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.  2. The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.  3. The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation. No body nor individual may exercise any authority which does not proceed directly from the nation.  4. Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights. These limits can only be determined by law.

Honore Gabriel Riquetti, Count of Mirabeau Are the colonies placing their Negroes and their gens de couleur in the class of men or in that of the beasts of burden?.. The free blacks are proprietors and taxpayers, and they have not been allowed to vote.” If the colonists want the Negroes and gens de couleur to count as men, let them enfranchise them first; that all be electors, that all may be elected. If not, we beg them to observe that in proportioning the number of deputies to the population of France, we have taken into consideration neither our horses nor our mules.

Free Citizens of Color “Address to the National Assembly ” How do the free citizens of color argue that they deserve representation in the National Assembly? What evidence do they offer that they deserve full rights as citizens?

Saint Domingue “All mortals are free” Petits Blancs rebellion in St. Marc Grand Blanc arm slaves vs Petit Blancs Vincent Oge Rebellion (gen de couleur) Boukman Rebellion, August 1791

Leger Felicite Sonthonax  Representative French Republic  Enforce law enfranchising all Gens de Couleur  Aug. 29, 1793 emancipation

French Emancipation February 4, 1794 “to punish white traitors”

 Andre Rigaud  Toussaint Louverture

Napoleon & Death Toussaint (1802) Capture Toussaint (Jacob Lawrence, 1936) TO TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE (Wordsworth) TOUSSAINT, the most unhappy of men! O miserable Chieftain! where and when Wilt thou find patience? Yet die not; do thou Wear rather in thy bonds a cheerful brow: Though fallen thyself, never to rise again, Live, and take comfort. Thou hast left behind Powers that will work for thee; air, earth, and Skie …; Thy friends are exultations, agonies, And love, and man's unconquerable mind. Morning Post, London, February 2,

Haitian Independence (1804) Charles Leclerc,, “we must destroy all of the blacks of the mountains – men and women – and only spare children under 12 years of age. We must destroy half of those of the plains and must not leave a single colored person in the colony who has worn an epaulette.”  Brutality Rochambeau  Jean-Jacques Dessalines declares indepdendence, “Haiti”

Two American Republics: US & Haiti  Adams Administration aid Toussaint vs Rigaud  Jefferson Administration denies recognition  James Weldon Johnson (1920) “The unfitness of the Haitian people to govern themselves has been the subject of propaganda for the last century”

Ntozake Shange, For the Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide; When the Rainbow is Enuf … Toussaint L’Ouverture was the beginin uv reality for me in the summer contest for who colored child can read 15 books in three weeks I won & raved abt Toussaint L’Ouverture at the afternoon ceremony was dis-qualified cuz Toussaint belonged in the ADULT READING ROOM & I cried & carried dead Toussaint home in the book he wuz dead & livin to me cuz Toussaint & them they held the citadel gainst the french wid the spirits of ol dead africans from outta the ground walkin cannon ball shootin spirits to free Haiti & they waznt slaves no more… Langston Hughes (1934): The Emperor of Haiti DESSALINES : (Who has remained standing, begins to berate his guests) Drums in the Court! The idea! Suppose we had guests from abroad, what would they think of us? They'd think we were all savages, that's what. Savages! Here I am, trying to build a civilization in Haiti good as any the whites have in their lands. Trying to set up a Court equal to any Court in Europe. And what do I find---voodoo drums in the banquet hall! Who gave orders for that?  (He pauses as the distant drum continues its throbbing beat) The peasants, up all night playing drums! And the fields only half productive. But not only the peasants are to blame. You Lords and Ladies, Dukes and Counts are to blame, too. I give you land, and you neglect to work it.