Biography of Haitian Revolution Leader Toussaint Louverture

Toussaint Louverture led what is known as the only triumphant mass slave revolt in history. Thanks largely to his efforts, Haiti won its independence in 1804. But the island-nation didn't live happily ever after. Institutional racism, political corruption, poverty and even natural disasters have left Haiti a nation in crisis. Still, Louverture remains a hero to the Haitian people and those throughout the African diaspora. With this biography, learn about his rise, fall and the political prowess that resulted in him leaving an indelible mark on the island-nation once known as Saint Domingue.EARLY YEARSLittle is known about François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture before his role in the Haitian Revolution. According to Philippe Girard, author of 2016's "Toussaint Louverture: A Revolutionary Life," his family came from the Allada kingdom of West Africa. His father, Hippolyte, or Gaou Guinou, had been an aristocrat. Around 1740, however, members of the Dahomey Empire captured his family and sold them as slaves to the Europeans. Hippolyte specifically was sold for 300 pounds of cowrie shells.His once aristocratic family now the property of European colonists, Louverture was not born in West Africa but likely on May 20, 1743, in the city of Cap on the Bréda plantation in Saint Domingue, a French territory. Louverture displayed a giftedness with horses and mules that impressed his overseer, Bayon de Libertat.He also received training in veterinary medicine. His godfather, Pierre Baptiste Simon, likely played a large role in educating him. He may have also received training from Jesuit missionaries and from West African medicinal traditions.Eventually Libertat freed Louverture, although he had no authority to do so, as the absentee slaveholders the Brédas owned Louverture. It is unclear exactly which circumstances led Libertat to free him. The overseer reportedly had him drive his coach and then released him. Louverture was about 33 years old at the time.Biographer Girard points out that it was highly unusual that Louverture was freed. The slave mothers of mixed-race children were most often freed, with men making up fewer than 11 percent of liberated slaves.In 1777, Louverture married Suzanne Simone Baptiste, born in Agen, France. She is believed to have been his godfather's daughter, but she may have been Louverture's cousin. He and Suzanne had two sons, Issac and Saint-Jean. Each also had children from other relationships.Biographers describe Louverture as a man filled with contradictions. He led a slave insurrection but never took part in smaller revolts that occurred in Haiti prior to the revolution. In addition, he wasn't partial to any religious faith. He was a Freemason, who practiced Catholicism devoutly but also engaged in voodoo (in secret). His embrace of Catholicism may have factored into his decision not to participate in voodoo-inspired insurrections that took place in Saint Domingue before the revolution.After Louverture won his freedom, he went on to own slaves himself.Some historians have criticized him for this, but he may have owned slaves to free his family members from bondage. As the New Republic explains:To free slaves required money, and money on Saint Domingue required slaves. As a free man, Toussaint leased a coffee estate from his son-in-law, including the slaves. True success navigating the slave system meant joining the other side. The revelation that the 'Black Spartacus' drove slaves spurred some modern historians to over-correct, speculating that Toussaint was a well-heeled bourgeois by the time of the revolution. But his position was more precarious. The coffee estate failed, and a slave register unearthed in 2013 records his tragic next move: Toussaint resumed his place on the Bréda plantation.In short, Touissant remained a victim of the same exploitative system he'd joined to free his family.But as he returned to the Bréda plantation, abolitionists begin to gain ground, even convincing King Louis the XVI to give slaves the right to appeal if their overlords subjected them to brutality.HAITI BEFORE AND AFTER THE REVOLUTIONBefore the slaves rose up in revolt, Haiti was one of the most profitable slave colonies in the world. About 500,000 slaves worked on its sugar and coffee plantations which produced a significant percentage of the world's crops. The colonists had a reputation for being cruel and engaging in debauchery. The planter Jean-Baptiste de Caradeux, for example, is said to have entertained guests by letting them shoot oranges off the tops of slaves' heads. Prostitution was reportedly rampant on the island as well.After widespread discontent, slaves mobilized for liberty in November 1791, seeing an opportunity to rebel against colonial rule during the throes of the French Revolution. Toussaint’s comrade Georges Biassou became the self-appointed Viceroy and named him general of the royal army-in-exile. Louverture taught himself about military strategies and used his newfound knowledge to organize the Haitians into troops. He also enlisted deserters of the French military to help train his men. His army included radical whites and mixed-race Haitians as well as blacks.As Adam Hochschild described in the New York Times, Louverture "used his legendary horsemanship to rush from one corner of the colony to another, cajoling, threatening, making and breaking alliances with a bewildering array of factions and warlords, and commanding his troops in one brilliant assault, feint or ambush after another."The slaves successfully fought the British, who wanted control over the crop-rich colony, and the French colonizers who'd subjected them to bondage. Both French and British soldiers left detailed journals expressing their surprise that the rebel slaves were so skilled. The rebels had dealings with agents of the Spanish Empire as well. Haitians also had to confront internal conflicts that sprang up from mixed-race islanders, who were known as gens de couleur, and black insurgents.Louverture has been accused of engaging in the very practices for which he criticized the Europeans. He needed weapons to defend Saint Domingue and implemented a forced labor system on the island that was virtually the same as slavery to ensure that the nation had sufficient crops to exchange for military supplies. Historians say he held onto his abolitionist principles while doing what was necessary to keep Haiti secure. Moreover, he intended to free the laborers and wanted them to profit from Haiti's achievements.“In France, everyone is free but everyone works,” he said.Louverture has not only been criticized for reintroducing slavery to Saint Domingue but also for writing a constitution that gave him the power to be a lifelong leader (much like the European monarchs he despised), who could choose his own successor. During the revolution, he took on the name "Louverture," which means "the opening" to emphasize his role in the uprising.But Louverture's life was cut short. In 1802, he was lured into talks with one of Napoleon’s generals, which resulted in his capture and removal from Haiti to France. His immediate family members, including his wife, were captured as well. Abroad, tragedy would befall him. Louverture was isolated and starved in a fortress in the Jura mountains, where he died in April 1803. His wife survived him, living until 1816.Despite his demise, Louverture biographers describe him as a leader who was far savvier than either Napoleon, who completely ignored his attempts at diplomacy, or Thomas Jefferson, a slave owner who sought to see Louverture fail by alienating him economically.“If I were white I would receive only praise,” Louverture said of how he'd been slighted in world politics, “But I actually deserve even more as a black man.”After his death, Haitian revolutionaries, including Louverture's lieutenant, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, continued to fight for independence. They won freedom in January 1804, when Haiti became a sovereign nation. Two-thirds of the French army died in their bid to squash the revolution, most from yellow fever rather than armed conflict.LOUVERTURE'S LEGACYLouverture has been the subject of numerous biographies, including 2007's “Toussaint Louverture” by Madison Smartt Bell as well as biographies by Ralph Korngold, published in 1944; and Pierre Pluchon, published in 1989. He was also the subject of 1938's "The Black Jacobins” by C.L.R. James, which the New York Times has called a masterpiece.The revolution Louverture led is said to have been a source of inspiration to abolitionists such as John Brown as well as the many African nations that won independence in the mid-20th century.by Nadra Kareem Nittle

MAY 18 | HAITIAN FLAG DAY

One of the primary symbols of Haitian freedom is the Haitian flag created in Arcahaie, a town located outside of Port-Au-Prince) on May 18, 1803. Since then, May 18th has been observed as the Haitian Flag Day as it has become a symbol of pride, unity, and individual liberty. In Haiti, Flag Day is a major national holiday celebrated with great fanfare on the grounds of the national palace and all cities in the country; also in other countries with a large number of Haitians. In the United States, Haitians give homage to the blue and red flag by carrying it around them for at least a week. As a matter of fact, the Haitian flag is tightly linked to a history of struggle and freedom.On August 21, 1791 the Haitian Revolution began its struggle against the French occupation. From 1791 to about 1793, the revolt became more widespread and gave rise to a number of large groups still fighting independently. In those times, each main leader would use any piece of cloth as a flag. Slowly the slave movement found some synergy and came to follow the leadership one main person: Toussaint Louverture. He had led his whole war with the French tricolor: blue, white and red flag. After the capture of Toussaint, Jean-Jacques Dessalines had taken up the torch in 1802 with the same color flag, but with a slight difference: the general had simply removed the French rooster and the initials RF République de France which at that time were found on the white band of the flag of the French Republic.

At that time, an original Haitian flag was not yet created. The fact that the rebel army was carrying a French flag was presented by the press of the time under the title of "Proclamation." The headquarters of the French army in Saint Domingue pretended that this tricolor flag, carried as a rallying sign by the indigenous army, was proof that the insurgents were not fighting for the independence of Saint Domingue but only to keep their liberty, just like the French of the home land, a liberty that the First Consul, the dictator Napoleon Bonaparte wanted to take from them.

Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Henri Christophe, Alexandre Petion

During a famous battle in the Cul-du-Sac, a plain not far from Port-au-Prince, on December 1, 1802, Alexandre Pétion confronted the colonial troops of Gilbert Gérard.

This confrontation was not successful to the rebel army and in the course of retreat, they lost the tricolor flag which was quickly seized by the enemy as a prize of war. This served to reinforce the determination of Pétion about the necessity for the rebels to have their own flag. In February 1803, when Pétion happened upon this newspaper which contained the story of his flag lost during the battle of December 1, he raced to get the newspaper in question to the headquarters of Dessalines, the commander in chief, in Petite-Rivière de L'Artibonite; he carefully explained the affair in details and took the opportunity to advise the commander-in-chief that the revolutionary army urgently needed to adopt a different flag.

Dessalines immediately reacted to Pétion's recommendation. He grabbed a red, white and blue flag, and with a sharp jerk, ripped the white stripe to pieces and joined the blue and red together, making the first Haitian flag, symbolizing the union of the mulattoes and the blacks against the colonialist, pro-slavery France. That is how the famous national bicolor was born between the end of February and the beginning of March 1803.

Pétion wanted to hold a big meeting with all the high ranking officers where this new flag would be adopted after debate. Pétion finished by convincing Dessalines and his principal lieutenants, in particular his private secretary and confidant Boisrond Tonnerre, to hold a major meeting during May in Arcahaie.

This meeting, known as the Congress of Arcahaie, was set for May 14 to 18, 1803; the agenda had two essential points: the establishment of a united command of the revolutionary army under the supreme authority of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and the adoption of a flag by the indigenous army. The two principal leaders at this time, Dessalines and Pétion, jointly drew up this agenda. On May 14, 1803, military delegations flocked to Arcahaie; only a few of them were from the south.

The principal heads of the insurgency did answer the call. The Congress was opened by Dessalines and Pétion May 15, 1803, on the Mérotte plantation in Arcahaie. The two men focused on the military situation, insisting on the need for all forces rebelling against the enemy to unite so that victory would be more rapid and decisive. Curiously, there was not a word about the new Haitian flag; priority was put on new strategies and tactics to thwart the colonial army and also to select a Commander of the insurrection army.Dessalines was appointed general-in-chief of the insurrection army.The question of the new Haitian Flag came up on the last day, May 18. The new Commander General suggested the old slogan "Live Free or Die" be replaced by "Liberty or Death." The debate over the proclamation of the creation of a new Haitian flag lasted a whole day. It was only in the evening that the Congress of Arcahaie definitively adopted the new Flag of Haiti. The white stripe was eliminated, while the remaining red and blue bands were attached together. The removal of the white stripe symbolizes the abolition of the White Man's control and the union of blacks and mulattoes in Haiti. The arms are composed of a palm tree surmounted by the Phrygian cap of liberty and ornamented with trophies with a banner across the bottom saying "L'Union Fait La Force" (through Unity there is Strength). By this gesture, they publicly designated that this country no longer wanted to be recognized as a French territory and that the people who lived on this land preferred to be dead rather than be slaves. "Liberté ou la Mort!" meaning "Liberty or Death" had become the new motto as it had already been embraced at the Ceremony of Bwa Kayiman " held on August 14, 1791.Haiti's first flag was sewn by a lady named Catherine Flon at the Congress

The French troops were defeated during the battle of Vertieres (November 18, 1803). Their capitulation allowed the proclamation of Haiti's independence on January 1 st , 1804. Haiti new flag has been raised proudly all over the country.Since May 18, 1803, the Haitian flag has known many changes in position or of color.  Haitian flag has known many changes in position or of color.         In 1805 , shortly after Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaimed himself emperor, the Haitian flag color was changed to black and red bands placed vertically respectively. After the emperor's death, in 1806, the country will be divided into two republics for 14 years. Henri Christophe , in the northern part kept the flag that Dessalines used.In the South and the western part of the country, Alexandre Petion nourished the idea of giving the indigenous army its own flag. He went back to 1804's flag that was blue and red only this time he added the white squared portion that included the country arms and the famous motto " L'UNION FAIT LA FORCE ", meaning that through unity we find strength.This flag was in use till 1964 when Papa Doc Duvalier modified it with the black-red vertical bicolor of Dessalines on which he added a modified version of the arms of the Republic.On February 25 1986, after the fall of Baby Doc and the Duvalier regime, the Haitian flag was again changed with the request of the Haitian people to two equal-sized horizontal bands, a blue one on top and a red one underneath. The coat of arms of the Republic remained in the center. That is the flag used until today.As we celebrate the Haitian flag Day, we need to remember that our ancestors created this bicolor blue and red as a symbol of unity among all of us of Haitian descent to fight colonialism and live free forever.

 

Source: Haitantreasures.com