Chapter 2-Dawn of the New Century.
Part 1: The Birth of Haiti, and trouble in Ireland.
Foreword
As the 19th Century began to dawn on the world, new rivalries came to light and new challenges arose for many nations, whether or not they were ready to face them.
The United States elected its second president, Thomas Jefferson, in 1797. Jefferson, though universally respected as a Founder and well-regarded on domestic policy by even some Federalists, has met a significant amount of criticism on foreign matters as of late, particularly over the Louisiana issue. However, though, many have also praised him for his willingness to compromise and Jefferson hopes to win one more term in office this year; his chief opponent, John Adams, has not had a strong showing and as of April, no other suitable candidate has stepped forward.
In France, Napoleon has begun to consolidate his power base, and has declared himself to be First Consul of the French Republic. While popular for having further united France, Msr. Bonaparte faces some interesting challenges ahead.
Firstly, reacquiring Louisiana seemed to be a smart decision a few years ago, but already, some complications have arisen: The Spanish were still technically the legal owners of the territory when it seceded and have not at all been pleased with the French that they took advantage of that. As of this year, the alliance is officially over. Britain, too, has become wary of the Louisiana conundrum and London has begun to fear that the French may next move their hungry eyes northwards, towards Rupert's Land in particular.
Also, there is still some resentment amongst the other European powers, Austria in particular, and most agree that they would like to see any monarch back in power over there, even if they happen to be a Bourbon. To them, Napoleon represents the increasing mortality of the old Continental order, and many fear that if France can hold its own for long enough, then their own domestic power shall become endangered, perhaps even leading to their own downfall, as what happened to Louis XVI in 1789. Making the paranoia worse is the fact that Napoleon has indeed begun to develop a vision of a republican Europe. However, though, there does remain the slight little inconvenience of the situation in Haiti....
Great Britain was inducted into the United Kingdom in the summer of 1797 and it's power on the world stage continues to increase. However, though, Britain has become a little concerned about America's ambitions as of late and is keeping a close watch on the Canadas and the Maritime colonies in particular. London is also warily eyeing the new state across the Channel, hoping that Napoleon doesn't decide that now would be a good chance to invade the British homeland.
The Dutch have recently begun to lose South Africa to the Britons(they have already lost the Cape) but are hoping to gain more profit in the East Indies. They are, however, getting worried about an increasingly belligerent France, which only complicates manners.
Not much is really happening in South America at the moment, though a young Simon Bolivar has become a student of Don Simon Rodriguez, a renowned educator with a strong love of liberty.......
And in that deepest and most remote of continents, Australia, the first real wave of European settlement is about to begin..........
**
Taken from “The Republican Empire: The Colonial History of the New France. Volume 1, 1798-1844”, by Jean-Claude Robineau. © 1971, University of the Seine, Paris.[1]
The French interest in colonization was not a new thing by the time the Revolution had succeeded; Indeed, France's stakes in the business were about as lengthy as those of any of the other Great Powers; it can be traced all the way back to 1524, when King Francis the First, sent the Italian merchant, Giovanni da Verrazano to try to find a suitable route to the Pacific Ocean. Though Verrazano never found such a passage, he did discover many new lands for France, which he named Nova Gallia, in honor of the country that sponsored him. 10 years later, Jacques Cartier followed in his footsteps, exploring Newfoundland and the St. Lawrence River, is what is now Quebec; he later founded the first European settlement in the Americas, Cap-Rouge, though it was abandoned after only a year. Other early French settlements on the continent included Port Royal, Fort Caroline, St. Croix, and Fort Saint Louis.
French settlers had also made their homes in the Caribbean, of which France owned much of it at various times in the 17th Century. One of the most important settlements was the town of Cap-Francois in Saint-Domingue(now Haiti). It served as the colony's administrative capital from 1711 to 1770, when it was moved to Port-au-Prince; the city was also one of the primary trading hubs for coffee, sugar, cotton, and even indigo, throughout much of that century. In fact, Cap-Francais became such a wealthy place that many grand buildings began to take shape in the city, eventually earning it the nickname of the “Paris of the Antilles”.
By the middle of the 18th Century, France claimed territory from Louisiana to what is now central and eastern Canada in the Americas, making it's holdings the most extensive of all the colonial European nations at the time.
[snip]
….However, though, the prosperity wasn't to last forever. The French and Indian Wars had caused France to lose her North American holdings to the British and the Spanish, thus denying her the port of New Orleans, as well as the fact that the nation also had to deal with the loss of her many forts throughout the former New France....
[snip]
One of the biggest problems France had to face towards the end of the century, and early the next, was the increasing discontentment amongst the Blacks in Haiti....In 1789, the Republican National Assembly drew up the Rights of Man, which proclaimed: "Man is born and remains free and equal in rights". After the passage of the Declaration, many planters revolted and tried to take control of the colony. However, this only served to rile up even more dissent amongst the blacks, in fact, so much so, that many began to revolt openly against the rule of the aristocrats.
However, though, this wasn't a new problem: In 1751, a slave named Mackandal escaped from his plantation and had terrorized the whites of the island for several years; he was adept at making poisons and was also an effective and charismatic guerrilla leader who united many Maroon bands under his command, and even setting up many secret organizations amongst the slaves on the plantations, something that would later inspire others in the future. He and his men sacked and torched countless plantations, often killing the owners in the process. Only in 1758 was he captured and brought to trial; he was later burned at the stake for his deeds[2].
It was partly due to the Mackandal Revolt[3] that in that same year, that the white gentry began to restrict the rights of the Blacks, both free and slave, as well as that of the Mulattoes to an extent, as well as creating a tri-level system of rigid class divisions:
At the top tier, you had the grands blancs, or the white elite, who made up only about 10% of the population in 1790, les noirs, the enslaved Blacks, at the very bottom, and of course, you had the affranchis, the middle tier comprised of a wider section of society including the free Blacks and Mulattoes, who made up only 5% of the population, combined, in 1790[4].
And also, an interesting thing to note is that even though the slaves made up over 80% of the population by that time, the majority of them had actually been born in Africa; the harsh working conditions in Haiti at the time ensured that many Blacks died early deaths, making it mandatory to keep importing new workers from Africa. However, though, in 1791, the outbreak of the the Haitian Revolution would soon change the entire face of the land as it was known.....
This excerpt was taken from Encyclopedia Britannica, 16th edition, Volume 8.
(c) 1992, The Britannica Company, London, England, U.K.
Haitian Revolution (1791-1802)- The Haitian Revolution was a slave revolt in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, now Haiti, which not only culminated in the elimination of slavery in the area, but also the founding of the People's Republic of Haiti, on 17 April, 1802[5]; so far, it is only one of two slave revolts to have successfully produced a new nation, and was one of only three nations to successfully achieve long-term independence from a European colonial power before the start of the 19th Century.
It is also generally considered to have been the most successful revolt of slaves and other indentured persons in the early Imperial Age, as well as one of the key defining moments in the history of Africans in the New World[6].
This excerpt is from “Haiti: Land of Voodoo, Land of Revolution.”, by Felix Willson.
(c) 1966 Trammell & Sons Publishing, Savannah, Ga.
…..One of the primary crops on the island of Hispaniola was, and still remains today, sugar cane. In the 1730s, some French engineers discovered that complex irrigation networks could significantly boost the yields of sugar cane and certain other crops, and the idea quickly became popular with planters. It worked so well that by the end of the 1740s, Saint-Domingue, as well as nearby Jamaica, were the primary producers of the world's sugar; coffee, cocoa, indigo, and cotton plantations also benefitted greatly from this method of growing but they weren't as profitable as sugarcane was at that time....
Slavery in general was, unfortunately, usually harsh, but the worst conditions were often found on the sugarcane plantations. The white planters, particularly many of the the wealthy ones, were outnumbered by their slaves(and other servants) by a factor of at least ten to one overall, and constantly lived in fear of slave rebellions; many white masters used the threat of physical violence to maintain control and limit the possibilities of such a scenario; often times, slaves who tried to escape or otherwise disobey their masters were subject to whippings and beatings, or sometimes, even torture by castration or burning, intended to be both a personal lesson for the offender, and as a deterrent for other slaves who might attempt the same.[7]
Surprisingly, Louis XIV, the “Sun King”, actually did create a series of legislations, called the “Code Noir”, in 1685, in an attempt to stop excessive violence; unfortunately, the laws were often ignored, and many slavers who had previously abused their slaves, continued to do so anyway.
However, though, the short-term efficiency that these abuses may have had in deterring slaves, often came with a steep long-term price; many slaves found ways to successfully escape their prisons, and joined the bands of already renegade slaves, often in the mountains & forests of the area, outside tangible control, but some also fled to some of the various towns in the land, and blended in with the other blacks(Though some masters did tolerate short-term leaves from their plantations).[8]
The Maroons, as these renegades were called, were notorious for sacking and burning plantations and often killing the men who owned them. One ringleader, Francois Mackandal, was particularly feared for his own brand of brutality towards the planters in the days before the Revolution, and terrorized the countryside for 7 years before being executed. However, though, 30 years after him, there was another Haitian guerrilla leader whose reputation would exceed Mackandal's. His name, was Jean-Jacques Dessalines.
Not much is known about his early life, except that his parents most likely came directly from Africa[9], and that he was named Jean-Jacques Duclos by his father, who himself had adopted the surname from his owner, Henry Duclos[10].
Jean-Jacques spent the first 30 years of his life on the Duclos plantation as a laborer, and later on, a foreman, before being bought by a free black man known as Dessalines(his first name is not known to us today); Jean-Jacques, and his two brothers Joseph and Louis, all adopted the surname; Jean-Jacques stayed with him for about three years.
However, though, it was in the spring of 1791 when Dessalines decided that he wished to join the Great Uprising, which had already begun to spread across the Plaine du Nord. He had been feeling somewhat embittered towards both the white elites and those amongst the gens de couleur whom he felt were enabling the perpetuation of the slavery system, but had kept his sympathies to himself until that point. Now, however, he wanted to act. He volunteered his services to Jean Francois Papillion, one of the two main ringleaders of the revolt(the other was Georges Biassou), and was assigned to Santo Domingo to fight the Spanish troops there. It was there, that he met the rising commander, Toussaint Breda[11], himself once a slave.....
This excerpt is from “Toussaint L'Ouverture: The George Washington of Haiti”, by Peter Clemson. (c) 1977 Ozarka Press, Little Rock, Ark., U.S.A.
….L'Ouverture's earliest years have largely been passed down to us by oral tradition and some of his personal writings, instead of established literature at this point in history, but most historians agree that he was born in the Haut-de-Cap region of Saint-Domingue on May 20, 1743. His father, Gaou Guinou, surprisingly, was not a commoner, but had actually been the son of one of the kings of Arrada, a small fort city in West Africa; his spouse, re-christened Pauline, was his second wife.
L'Ouverture was largely brought up by his godfather Pierre Baptiste[12], whom some historians believe may have been a Creole; L'Ouverture himself was quite fluent in the Creole Patois, and also had a decent command of French as well.
Baptiste gave him a rather fine education, and Toussaint, in his memoirs, recalled his learning days with much fondness; he claimed that Baptiste's kindness also inspired him to further his studies, and by adulthood, was familiar with the writings of men such as Epictetus and Machiavelli, the Italian prince, as well as Abbe Raynal, a French writer and abolitionist. He may have also attained a Jesuit education, according to British historian Chris Reynard[13]: some of his medical knowledge was commonly applied in Jesuit hospitals back in Europe.
Until a few decades ago, it was believed that he had remained a slave until the Revolution, but the 1949 discovery of a marriage certificate in an old church in Port-au-Prince revealed that he had been freed in 1776, when he was 33, though maintained ties with the Breda plantation until the Revolution. He had also briefly been a planter himself, though he abandoned the venture at some point before the end of the century.[14]
Toussaint married one Suzanne Simone Baptiste, either his godfather's daughter or his cousin, in 1782 and had several children with her; perhaps his most famous offspring was his youngest daughter, Placidia; she was born in 1809, and became a writer in New York City, and an early cultural representative of the Black American community[15].....
Taken from “The Republican Empire: The Colonial History of the New France. Volume 1, 1798-1844”, by Jean-Claude Robineau. © 1971, University of the Seine, Paris.
…..As Saint-Domingue became more and more unstable, the French government feared that things might take a horrific turn; indeed, even the famed abolitionist man of letters, Guillaume Reynal, warned of an “impending storm”, or, rather, a general revolt of the slaves, in 1780. Possibly partly in the hopes of preventing anarchy in it's most profitable colony, the new Republican government declared, in May 1791, that wealthy black freemen could enjoy the same rights of citizenship as white men did.
However, though, when news of this reached Saint-Domingue, many planters refused to comply with the new legislation; this, many historians believe, was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back, as it were[16].
On the evening of 21 August, 1791, Abbe Raynal's fears came true: a week earlier, Dutty Boukman, a formerly Jamaican slave and houngan, had initiated a Vodou ceremony in the Bois Caiman area of the island, giving the Maroons the signal had been waiting for. In only 10 days, the slaves had seized most of the Northern Province, while the whites were relegated to just a few isolated bands in terms of absolute control. Though many plantation owners had been prepared for such an eventuality, what they couldn't possibly have counted on was the tenacity of the slaves and the fact that more and more of them were joining in the revolts. Within only several weeks, as many as 100,000 blacks had joined the Maroons.....and by the end of October, 4,000 whites would have died in the violence. And by the spring of 1792, the revolting slaves controlled nearly a third of the island.....
…..To the credit of the French Republican government, they did take some seriously genuine steps to try to appease the situation; in 1794, the First Assembly of the Republic abolished slavery in France and all of its colonies, and even granted civil and political rights to all black men in the colonies, including Saint-Domingue; and despite the ongoing racial tensions, the government, and many Frenchmen, still welcomed abolition with some optimism, primarily because they hoped it would serve as an example for other countries, as well as a moral triumph over royalist England.
Even so, however, the French government still wasn't ready to give Haiti it's independence yet, and the violence would continue for several more years to come.....[17]
**
Somewhere in Haiti
Sept. 18, 1796
It was just another day of violence on this island formerly known as the Jewel of the French Empire. Jean-Jacques Dessalines stood atop a hill overlooking a now burning coffee plantation, one of many such ruins that could be seen in Saint-Domingue nowadays; seeing his handiwork pleased him greatly. And then, out of the nearby bushes, came one of his adjutants. “Sir?”, the man asked, a wiry older man who couldn't have been any younger than fifty.
Dessalines turned around. “Yes? What do you wish to say?”
“Sir,” the adjutant inquired, “some of our scouts have discovered more plantations that have yet to fall under our control. Shall we move out?”
“If what they say is true, then yes, we should. I think our work here is done, anyway.”, said Dessalines, with a smile on his face.
“Thank you, sir, I shall inform the others.”, said the wiry gray-haired adjutant, as he went back into the bushes, and headed back to their camp, a couple miles away.
Dessalines looked back one more time at the ruined plantation, and scowled. “You slavers really thought you could lord it over us black men from now until eternity, and that nothing could stop you, didn't you?”, he muttered, with a tinge of anger in his voice. “And when the first man stood up, you said to yourselves, 'How could these Africans, these savages, possibly do such a thing? They are but beasts in the forms of man!'. You laughed and you joked, but you also tortured us, you sniveling bastards.”, he thought to himself; it made him mad enough to spit on the ground in front of him.
But Dessalines lightened up a bit. “But it didn't last forever, did it? Though Francois Mackandal did indeed strike some terror into your hearts, it was men like myself, and L'Ouverture, who helped make your worst nightmares, and the dreams of Black independence, a true reality. And all of your boasting and delusions of grandeur have come to naught.”, he thought. “And now,”, he whispered openly, “We're the ones doing the laughing. Enjoy your new hell, you miserable bastards. You've earned it.” And with a slight chuckle, he smiled, turned away, and began to walk back towards the camp. [18]
*
Sept. 20, 1796
Toussaint L'Ouverture was a quite content man today; he had received some news that the American President, George Washington, might possibly be willing to consider meeting with a representative of the anti-Royalist black rebels[19]; while it was unfortunate that slavery continued to exist in America, L'Ouverture hoped that if Haiti could successfully become a functioning nation of its own, that the white Americans could begin to see the light. “Indeed so,” he thought, “it would be a truly wonderful thing if the people of the world's first successful nation birthed out of opposition to colonialism, could come to recognize the fruits of our own labor, and perhaps one day, view us as fellows; birds of a feather; comrades.”. Though he realized it would likely be a long and tough road to follow, he also had hope for the future, and faith in the Haitian Revolution, and the people who fought with him. “We shall triumph, over those men and institutions, who dared oppress us, the black people of the world. God willing, may it be so.”. And Toussaint smiled, for he knew the truth of the matter was at hand....[20]
***
[1]The University of the Seine is a fictional university in the very outer corners of Paris, well-known for being the first public university ever to be built in France.
[2]That didn't stop the other revolts, though. In fact, Mackandal will be known later on as the “First Martyr” of Haiti.
[3]Or so it'd be named in later years.
[4]Even OTL's South Africa didn't have that much of a disparity in most places.
[5]1804 IOTL.
[6]And perhaps beyond.
[7]But of course, we all know how that turned out.
[8]Or tried to, anyway, with varying degrees of success.
[9]Or maybe not. Even in OTL, nobody knows for sure.
[10]What happened to Duclos remains a mystery.
[11]A.K.A. L'Ouverture.
[12]Later to be a “patron saint” of sorts of the Haitian people, like his godson.
[13]Reynard, btw, is a fictional British historian who lives in the Sunderland area of the U.K.; you may see some of his writings later.
[14]Indeed so. Unlike certain American founders(yes, Jefferson, this means you), he actually came around to acting on his beliefs. Give him some credit. =)
[15]Yes, indeed, Toussaint had many kids IOTL. Placidia is someone you may hear more of in future installments.
[16]How does one translate that into French?
[17]Indeed so. How will Napoleon react to this? Wait and see.
[18]Dessalines would probably kill every single last planter on the island, given the chance to do so.
[19]Though Msr. L'Ouverture realizes that Philadelphia may not necessarily be willing to go too far all at once. He's prepared himself for that, however.
[20]Yes, quite, for the time of the planters is running very short indeed....
**