why was saint domingue important to france?
By 1789, Saint Domingue was made up of about 8,000 plantations , producing one-half of all the sugar and coffee that was consumed in Europe and the Americas. Jean Baptiste Brunet was ordered to do so, and he deported Louverture and his aides to France, claiming that he suspected the former leader of plotting an uprising. Dessalines was assassinated on 17 October 1806 by rebels led by Haitian generals Henri Christophe and Alexandre Ption; his body was found dismembered and mutilated. A little hut is constructed above the cage so that the weather does not interfere with the body. He preached a radical vision of killing the white population of Saint-Domingue. In November 1799, during the civil war in Saint-Domingue, Napoleon Bonaparte gained power in France. [63], Louverture as Saint-Domingue's Governor-General-for-life enacted forced plantation labor to prevent the collapse of the St. Dominican economy. By 1789, they owned one-third of the plantation property and one-quarter of the slaves of Saint-Domingue. This arises from a greediness which counts the future for . White St. Dominicans felt the sting of labor most sharply. [83] Some whites were, nevertheless, hidden and smuggled out to sea by foreigners. [89] These refugees had a significant impact on the culture of Louisiana, including developing its sugar industry and cultural institutions. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. h! Saint Domingue's economy peaked in the early 1900s, when it generated a tax base of one billionlivres and exported items worth 150-170 millionlivres a year to France. R. Not at all; i'm a slave of war; when I arrive there, they will take me again and sell me. In . Here is a description of how the libert des savanes (savannah liberty) Creole custom worked: "My parent, like most Creoles, was an indulgent master, and more under the influence of his bondservants than he himself was aware of. That led to larger revolts against the French, as a submissive slave diligently working in the fields would suddenly be devoured by dozens of hungry pit bulls. After the war, which disrupted maritime commerce, the colony underwent rapid expansion. He believed that Saint-Domingue would need slave soldiers among the ranks of the colonial army if it was to survive. Slavery and the Haitian Revolution Explore LIBERTY, EQUALITY [87] Many of them found their way to Louisiana, with the largest wave of refugees, more than 10,000 people almost equally divided among whites, free people of color, and slaves arriving in New Orleans between May 1809 and January 1810 after being expelled from Cuba,[88] nearly doubling the population of the city. Christophe offered to lay down his arms in exchange for being given the same lenient treatment as had been given Laplume and Maurepas and his surrender led to that of Dessalines and finally of Toussaint. In the parish of Jrmie, the gens de couleur libres formed the majority of the population. These developments made Saint Domingue, today called Haiti, integral to American discussions about France and its revolution, about the implications of Americans' own recent revolutionary past, about slavery, and about race and citizenship. Why was Haiti important to France as a colony? Ash from blazing sugar cane fields fell from afar onto Cap-Franais. The Haitian Revolution culminated in the elimination of slavery in Saint-Domingue and the founding of the Haitian Empire in the whole of Hispaniola. Britain was thus isolated and, after the first ministry of William Pitt the Younger fell on 13 March 1801, the new Addington ministry began to consider making peace. "[30], Upon arriving in Africa, slaves were typically branded to make clear who claimed ownership. From the 17th century to the mid-18th century, the Crown attempted to remedy this by sending women from France to Saint-Domingue and Martinique to marry the settlers. At Verrettes the French forces found a horrible spectacle. The Gens de couleur libres class was made up of affranchis (ex-slaves), free-born blacks, and mixed-race people, and they controlled much wealth and land in the same way as petits blancs; they held full citizenship and civil equality with other French subjects. Sonthonax believed that all of Saint-Domingue's whites were Bourbon royalist or rebel separatist conservatives attached to independence or joining Spain. Era de Francia - Wikipedia "[62], During this time, Bonaparte met with St. Dominican planters; they urged the restoration of slavery in Saint-Domingue, saying that it was integral to the colony's economy. The defeat ended forever Napoleon's dreams of a French empire in the West. The border that divides the Island on the map, is the border agreed between France and Spain in the Treaty of Aranjuez of 1777. On a few occasions, they also joined the Tano settlements, who had escaped the Spanish in the 17th century. Many gens de couleur, the affranchis (ex-slaves) and Dominican Creole residents of the colony whose rights were restored by the French National Convention as part of the decree of 15 May 1792, asserted that they could form the military backbone of Republican Saint-Domingue; Sonthonax rejected this view as outdated in the wake of the August 1791 slave uprising. 2/5 of overseas trade. A comparative study of the slave regimes of France's colonies. Saint Domingue was an important French colony because it was the world's major producer of brown sugar. Dessalines declared Haiti to be an all-black nation and forbade whites from ever owning property or land there. Cap-Hatien seemed to be the last bastion of the anti-rebel forces and, when the rebels reached it, Christophe had already relieved one of the forts. [17], The inability to maintain slave numbers without constant resupply from Africa meant that at all times, a majority of slaves in the colony were African-born, as specific conditions of slavery and exposure to tropical diseases such as yellow fever prevented the population from experiencing growth through natural increase. When news of the slave revolt broke out, American leaders rushed to . The division of Hispaniola Map of the French Colony of Saint-Domingue, in 1777. It was on one of these excursions that one of the maroon leaders, Kebinda, who had been born in freedom in the mountains, was captured. The most important of these colonies was Saint Domingue (later Haiti), which had 500,000 slaves, 32,000 whites, and 28,000 free blacks (which included both blacks and mulattos). The Bittersweet Victory at Saint-Domingue - Slate Magazine Taking refuge in the Arbonite massif, Toussaint was only left with a few brigades under generals Jacques Maurepas, Christophe and Dessalines. Io croire, parce que io va retarder rvolution la, io va empcher li caba. A Vodou Houngan (priest), he united many of the different maroon bands. [1][2] In 1791, slaves and some Dominican Creoles took part in a Vodou ceremony at Bois Caman and planned the Haitian Revolution. [73] The last battle of the Haitian Revolution, the Battle of Vertires, occurred on 18 November 1803, near Cap-Hatien. At the end of April and start of May order was re-established little by little on the island, trade resumed at the ports and the rebels (seemingly reconciled to their situation) held onto their lands and ranks. Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) Global African History - Blackpast On 18 November 1803, near the Cap, the French were defeated at the Battle of Vertires by the rebel general Jean-Jacques Dessalines and at the end of December the last French soldiers left the island. While Louverture, an affranchi who had a tolerant master and later became a slave holder and plantation owner himself, felt magnanimity toward whites; however, Dessalines, a former field slave, despised them. By October, however, Napoleon's opinion had shifted, as he interpreted Toussaint's July constitution as an unacceptable offense to French imperial authority. Produced sugar 2. The maroons formed close-knit communities that practised small-scale agriculture and hunting. Saint-Domingue. Corrections? [16] Little more than 7,000 to 8,000 of the 31,000 soldiers sent to Saint-Domingue survived and over 20 French generals died. This was the catalyst for the 1791 slave rebellion, a key event for the Haitian Revolution with which the new citizens demanded their granted rights. In 1799, Louverture started a civil war known as the War of Knives with Creole general Andr Rigaud who ruled an autonomous state in the south; Louverture claimed that Rigaud attempted to assassinate him. French buccaneers established a settlement on the island of Tortuga in 1625 before going to Grande Terre (mainland). Some slaves became skilled workmen, and they received privileges such as better food, the ability to go into town, and libert des savanes (savannah liberty), a sort of freedom with certain rules. R. Non va; m saclave la guerre; quand m arrive l; zotte prend moi encore pour vend moi. I won't be a slave? The initial wave of emigration from Saint-Domingue began as more than 450,000 slaves took up arms against their masters, setting fire to the island's plantations and townhomes. Spain controlled the entire island of Hispaniola from the 1490s until the 17th century, when French pirates began establishing bases on the western side of the island. In 1665, French colonization of the islands Hispaniola and Tortuga entailed slavery-based plantation agricultural activity such as growing coffee and cattle farming. Henceforth, Napoleon secretly directed Leclerc to disarm Toussaint's black-controlled government and deport his military officers to France. Milestones: 1784-1800 - Office of the Historian. Plantation economy (relied on slavery to keep its level of production high) On the eve of the revolution how was the population of Haiti divided? [13] This single colony, roughly the size of Hawaii or Belgium, produced more sugar and coffee than all of the British West Indies colonies combined, generating enormous revenue for the French government and enhancing its power. Vol. m n'a pas saclave? An army of enslaved people led by Toussaint L'Ouverture burned the plantations, defeating both militias and. Napoleon also passed a new constitution, declaring that the colonies would be subject to special laws. When these people left their hiding place, however, they were murdered as well. [59], Napoleon forbade Louverture to control the formerly Spanish settlement on the eastern side of Hispaniola, as that would have given the Louverture a more powerful defensive position. Petits blancs shared the same societal level as gens de couleur libres. [81] The argument for killing the women was that whites would not truly be eradicated if the white women were spared to give birth to new Frenchmen. Port-au-Prince . Prior to the Seven Years' War (17561763), the economy of Saint-Domingue gradually expanded, with sugar and, later, coffee becoming important export crops. In their faces, one could see the human suffering and pain they endured, but the time for rest had not yet come. Saint-Domingue expedition - Wikipedia They believe that, because these will delay the revolution, they will prevent it from finishing. Putting out the fires and putting up defensive works, Leclerc set up his main headquarters at Cap-Hatien before sending ships towards North America to resupply. After the recently defected Christophe massacred several hundred Polish soldiers at Port-de-Paix, Leclerc ordered the arrest of all remaining black colonial troops in Cap-Hatien, and executed 1000 of them by tying sacks of flour to their neck and pushing them off the side of ships. The name of Saint-Domingue was changed to Hayti (Hati) when Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared the independence of all Hispaniola from the French in 1804. Inspired by events in France, a number of Haitian-born revolutionary movements emerged simultaneously. "The Minister should be informed that there are inaccessible or reputedly inaccesible areas in different sections of our colony which serve as retreat and shelter for maroons; it is in the mountains and in the forests that these tribes of slaves establish themselves and multiply, invading the plains from time to time, spreading alarm and always causing great damage to the inhabitants. The French subsequently sent orders to arrest and imprison all the black troops in the colony still serving within the French forces. [55][56] After defeating Rigaud, Louverture became master of the whole French colony of Saint-Domingue.[57]. The name derives from the Spanish main city on the island, Santo Domingo, which came to refer specifically to the Spanish-held Captaincy General of Santo Domingo, now the Dominican Republic. In this manner, in many districts the best land is owned by Creoles of color."[30]. The Saint-Domingue revolution had a great impact on Louisiana from the 1790s through the 1810s; first and foremost was France's loss in its attempted re-conquest of the island during 1802 and 1803. Between 1785 and 1790, Saint-Domingue absorbed 37 percent of the entire trans-Atlantic slave trade. Good material on slavery and white society. Haitian Revolution | Causes, Summary, & Facts | Britannica Vaissire, Pierre de. [54], C'est cila io qui plus grands ennemis z'autres qui excit impatience z'autres, qui faire z'autres croire io va tromper z'autres, qui conseill z'autres faire z'attroupements, & qui cherch faire z'autres soulev. These people gave my father what they pleased out of their earnings; he scarcely took any account of what his slaves paid him: sufficient for him was it, that one part of them supplied him with enough to satisfy his immediate wants. The Civil Code confirmed many of the moderate revolutionary policies of the National Assembly but retracted measures passed by the more radical Convention. Because of the comparative investment requirement between sugar plantations and all other plantation types, there was a big economic gap between normal planters and sugar "lords. [10] However, these women were rumoured to be former prostitutes from La Salptrire and the settlers complained about the system in 1713, stating that the women sent were not suitable, a complaint that was repeated in 1743. Statutes forbade Gens de couleur from taking up certain professions, wearing European clothing, carrying swords or firearms in public, or attending social functions where whites were present.[23]. In November Leclerc died of yellow fever, like much of his army; the Vicomte de Rochambeau then became the commanding officer of French expeditionary forces.[73]. A passage from the personal secretary of the later King of Northern Haiti (18111820), Henry I describes punishments some slaves received: Have they not hung up men with heads downward, drowned them in sacks, crucified them on planks, buried them alive, crushed them in mortars? The Saint-Domingue expedition was a French military expedition sent by Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul, under his brother-in-law Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc in an attempt to regain French control of the Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue on the island of Hispaniola, and curtail the measures of independence taken by the former slave Toussaint Louverture. In both places slavery was important, but in Saint . [61], Louverture promulgated the Constitution of 1801 on 7 July, officially establishing his authority as governor general "for life" over the entire island of Hispaniola and confirming most of his existing policies. In parallel to the killings, plundering and rape also occurred. Saint-Domingue was France's most prized possession and it became the prime destination for fortune seeking Frenchmen. [45], As the social systems of Saint Domingue began eroding after the 1760s, the plantation economy of Saint-Domingue also began weakening. [90], On April 17, 1825, the French king (Charles X) issued a decree stating France would recognize Haitian independence, but only at the price of 150 million francs 10 times the amount the U.S. had paid for the Louisiana territory. Saint-Domingue, Rights, and Empire 59 UN Saint-Domingue. In an attempt to take control of the St. Dominican slave revolt and entice Dominican Creole rebels to join them, French Republicans declared amnesty for any revolting slaves and Creole rebels if they would fight for the Republic. "[30], In 17767, a joint French-Spanish expedition ventured into the border regions of the Bahoruco mountains, with the intention of destroying the maroon settlements there. The regulations did not restrict their purchase of land, and many had already accumulated substantial holdings and became slaveowners. Producing these labor-intensive commodities depended on maintaining a ruthless regime that enslaved the majority of the colony's population. "[8]:2 This led to confusion with the earlier Spanish colony, and later the contemporary Spanish colony established at Santo Domingo during the colonial period; in particular, in political debates on slavery previous to the American Civil War, "San Domingo" was used to express fears of Southern whites of a slave rebellion breaking out in their own region. [12] Saint-Domingue became known as the "Pearl of the Antilles" one of the richest colonies in the world in the 18th-century French empire. To dislodge him the French would have to overcome narrow gorges, impenetrable with thick tropical vegetation and ideal for ambushes. This debt to France was reduced to 90million in 1838 and was finally paid off by the mid-20th century. [48][49], Despite signs of economic decline, Saint-Domingue continued to produce more sugar than all of the British Caribbean islands combined.[22]. The Kingdom of Naples then signed a peace treaty with the French at Florence and Russia under Paul I distanced itself from the coalition, with his successor Alexander I finally concluded a secret peace with Bonaparte on 10 October 1801. They followed the example of neighboring Caribbean colonies in coercive treatment of the slaves. io pas voir io mmes ta pay toute crimes io conseill z'autres faire. The French forces besieging fort de la Crte--Pierrot were attacked in the rear by Dessalines then by Toussaint as they attempted to bring relief to the besieged, but the fort was finally forced to surrender and inside it were found large amounts of arms and munitions as well as many assassinated white residents. [60] In January 1801, Louverture invaded the Spanish territory of Santo Domingo, taking possession of it from the governor, Don Garcia, with few difficulties. . Saint-Domingue: La socit et la vie croles sous l'ancien rgime (1629-1789). Milestones: 1784-1800 - Office of the Historian [10], An early death among Europeans was very common due to diseases and conflicts; the French soldiers that Napoleon sent in 1802 to quell the revolt in Saint-Domingue were attacked by yellow fever during the Haitian Revolution, and more than half of the French army died of disease.[11]. If a murder takes place, the dead's relatives do not search for the killer; rather, they will hide and will disembowel the first passer-by without fear of a judiciary backlash, offering the victim's life as a sacrifice to their god Brataoth. [53] His official title was Civil Commissioner. Thus, the income and the taxes from slave-based sugar production became a major source of the French budget. This was the last region of the colony to be settled, owing to its distance from Atlantic shipping lanes and its formidable terrain, with the highest mountain range in the Caribbean. On their voyage back to France, Rochambeau was captured at the Blockade of Saint-Domingue by the British and then interned in Britain for nearly nine years as a prisoner of war. Background In 1665, French colonization of the western part of the island was officially recognized by Louis XIV. On 22 May 1802, after Dessalines learned that Louverture had failed to instruct a local rebel leader to lay down his arms per the recent ceasefire agreement, he immediately wrote to Leclerc to denounce Louverture's conduct as "extraordinary". However, the maroons had been alerted of their coming, and had abandoned their villages and caves, retreating further into the mountainous forests where they could not be found. The British Government and the Saint Domingue Slave Revolt - JSTOR PDF THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION - University of Oregon Those who are your biggest enemies, those who excited your impatience, who make you all believe that they'll fool you, who advised you to make regiments, and who sought to make you revolt. The Root of Haiti's Misery: Reparations to Enslavers The squadrons under Ganteaume and Linois had arrived, however, with reinforcements and Leclerc still held his joker in the form of his own hostages, Toussaint's sons, both of whom carried a letter from Napoleon promising their father the role of Leclerc's deputy in command of the island if he surrendered. [77] The weapons used should be silent weapons such as knives and bayonets rather than gunfire, so that the killing could be done more quietly, and avoid warning intended victims by the sound of gunfire and thereby giving them the opportunity to escape. He decreed that all those suspected of conspiring in the acts of the expeditionary army should be put to death, including Creoles of color and freed slaves deemed traitors to Dessalines' regime. But when it became apparent that the French intended to re-establish slavery, because they had done so on Guadeloupe, Dessalines and Ption switched sides again, in October 1802, and fought against the French. "[30], Slaves who fled to remote mountainous areas were called marron (French) or mawon (Haitian Creole), meaning 'escaped slave'. The Haitian Revolution and the Hole in French High-School History The Spanish colony on Hispaniola remained separate, and eventually became the Dominican Republic, the capital of which is still named Santo Domingo.[4]. history of Latin America: The north and the culmination of independence. The Code Noir sanctioned corporal punishment but had provisions intended to regulate the administration of punishments. Taking refuge on Tortuga in an attempt to avoid yellow fever, Leclerc died of it on 1 November 1802. An examination of Blanchelande's mission in Saint Domingue is important above all because it raises the question of whether the principles of the French Revolution's liberal phase, from 1789 to 1792, could be recon- Q. Ah! Leclerc proclaimed peaceful intentions, but kept secret his orders to deport black officers holding a rank above captain. "The rebellion was extremely violent the rich plain of the North was reduced to ruins and ashes "[51] Within two months, the slave revolt in northern Saint-Domingue killed 2,000 St. Dominicans and burned 280 sugar plantations owned by grand blancs. On 17 February Leclerc launched a simultaneous assault with the divisions he had formed. [13] This fleet was followed by the squadron under contre-amiral Ganteaume which left Toulon on 14 February with 4,200 troops then by that under contre-amiral Linois which left Cdiz on 17 February with 2,400 troops. Below is a list of different African peoples found in Saint-Domingue: Planters took care to treat slaves well in the beginning of their time on the plantation, and they slowly integrated slaves into the plantation's labor system. 1. [3] Toussaint Louverture, a black former slave who had been recognized as Governor by France, re-established peace, fought off Spanish and British attempts to capture the island, and partially re-established prosperity by daring measures. In early 1801, Napoleon decided to appoint his sister Pauline's husband, general Charles Leclerc, as head of a military expedition to reassert French authority over Saint-Domingue. Their time was chiefly spent in eating wangoo (boiled Indian cornflour), fish, land-crabs, and yams; sleeping; beating the African drum, composed of a barrel covered with a goat's skin; dancing, quarrelling, and love-making after their own peculiar amusement. [67], Both Louverture and Dessalines fought against the French expeditionary forces, but after the Battle of Crte--Pierrot, Dessalines defected from his long-time ally Louverture and joined Leclerc's forces. [10], Napoleon foresaw that Toussaint would probably put up resistance and so took all necessary measures to defeat him should that occur Toussaint had over 16,000 men available,[11] so Leclerc was put in command of 30,000 men drawn from nearly all units of the French Revolutionary Army as well as the disciplinary corps.[12]. D'Ogeron also attracted many colonists from Martinique and Guadeloupe, including Jean Roy, Jean Hebert and his family, and Guillaume Barre and his family, who were driven out by the land pressure which was generated by the extension of the sugar plantations in those colonies. It was the most lucrative colony in the whole world. DOI: 10.1017/S0738248011000538. They don't see that they will pay for all of the crimes they advised you all to make. They used as their inspiration the French Revolution's "Declaration of the Rights of Man." The refugees who came back to Saint-Domingue and believed in Toussaint Louverture's rule were later exterminated by Jean-Jacques Dessalines. When I die, I will go to my country, that's all. The area was less developed and populated than the French section. 2. When Christopher Columbus took possession of the island in 1492, he named it Insula Hispana, meaning "the Spanish island" in Latin. Between February and April 1804, Governor-General-for-life Jean-Jacques Dessalines ordered the genocide of all remaining whites in Haitian territory. A majority of slaves only lived for a few years after their arrival. The droughts are becoming longer and more frequent. [52] Meaning to radicalize slaves to the Republican cause, Sonthonax wrote: A vla yo donc yon foi dmasqu cila la yo toi hl zamis pays cila-la, qui livr la ville du Cap dans dif et dans pillage, zamis de france la yo qui gagn pour cri ralliement Vive le Roi, qui hl Pagnols sur terre nous, qui grossi zarme yo, qui livr yo postes que nous t confi yo, qui os faire complots pour prend pays-ci baye Pagnols cila yo qui fait complot l, c'est presque toute Blanc qui t St Domingue, cila yo qui t gagn dettes en pile, quoique yo t gagn l'air riche, cila yo qui t vl pillage parceque yo t pas gagn rien. The vast majority of the slaves in Saint-Domingue were war-captives who had lost a war with another ethnic group. In France, the majority of the Estates General, an advisory body to the King, reconstituted itself as the Republican National Assembly, made radical changes in French laws, and on 26 August 1789, published the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, declaring all men free and equal.
