All Souls' Rising (62 page)

Blancheland goes to work fortifying the heights against a land attack. Elsewhere the mountainous borders of the Plaine du Nord are fortified to prevent the rebels from reaching the Department of the West—these lines will not be broken until 1793.

There follows a war of extermination with unconscionable cruelties on both sides. Le Cap is covered with scaffolds on which captured blacks are tortured. There are many executions on the wheel. During the first two months of the revolt, two thousand whites are killed, one hundred eighty sugar plantations and nine hundred smaller operations (coffee, indigo, cotton) are burned, with twelve hundred families dispossessed. Ten thousand rebel slaves are supposed to have been killed.

During the initial six weeks of the slave revolt, Toussaint remains at Bréda, keeping order among the slaves there and showing no sign of any connection to the slave revolt.

In mid-August, news of the general rebellion in Saint Domingue reaches France. Atrocities against whites produce a backlash of sympathy for the colonial conservatives, and the colonial faction begns to lobby for the repeal of the May 15 decree.

September 24:
The National Assembly in France reverses itself again and passes the decree of September 24, which revokes mulatto rights and once again hands the question of the “status of persons” over to colonial assemblies. This decree is declared “an unalterable article of the French Constitution.”

Late in the month, the Englishman Edwards arrives in Le Cap with emergency supplies from Jamaica, and is received as a savior with cries of “
Vivent les Anglais
.” Edwards hears much of the colonists’ hopes that England will take over the government of the colony.

October:
By this time, expeditions are beginning to set out from Le Cap against the blacks, but illness kills as many as the enemy, so the rebel slaves gain ground. The hill country is dotted with both white and black camps, surrounded by hanged men, or skulls on palings. The countryside is constantly under dispute with the rebels increasingly in the ascendancy.

In France this month, a more radical Legislative Assembly convenes, alarming conservative colonists further. One hundred thirty-six new Jacobin members are seated in the
Legislatif
that meets on October 1. This body will set itself against the appeals for arms and aid made by both the Civil Commission and Blanchelande. Radicals in the Legislative Assembly suggest that the slave insurrection is a trick organized by
émigrés
to create a royalist haven in Saint Domingue. The arrival of refugees from Saint Domingue in France over the next few months does little to change this position.

October 24:
A party of whites in the hill camps, including the procurator Gros, are captured by Jeannot’s forces and brought to Grande Rivière, where many are killed by slow tortures, day by day.

November:
Early in the month, news of the decree of September 24 (repealing mulatto rights) arrives in San Domingue, confirming the suspicions of the mulattoes.

Toussaint arranges the departure of the family of Bayon de Libertat from Bréda, then rides to join the rebels at Biassou’s camp on Grande Rivière. For the next few months he functions as the “general doctor” to the rebel slaves, carrying no other military rank, although he does organize special fortifications at Grand Boucan and La Tannerie. Jeannot, Jean-François and Biassou emerge as the principal leaders of the rebel slaves on the northern plain—all established in adjacent camps in the same area.

November 14:
News of the death of Boukman in skirmishing around Le Cap arrives at the black camps around Grande Rivière.

A short time later, Jeannot is executed for his atrocities by the other black leaders and the white prisoners are brought to the camp of Biassou, where they receive somewhat better treatment.

November 21:
A massacre of mulattoes by
petit blancs
in Port-au-Prince begins over a referendum about the September 4 decree. Polling ends in a riot, followed by a battle. The mulatto troops are driven out, and part of the city is burned.

For the remainder of the fall, the mulattoes range around the western countryside, outdoing the slaves of the north in atrocity. They make white cockades from the ears of the slain, rip open pregnant women and force the husbands to eat the embryos, and throw infants to the hogs. Port-au-Prince remains under siege by the mulatto forces through December. As at Le Cap, the occupants answer the atrocities of the besiegers with their own, with the mob frequently breaking into the jails to murder mulatto prisoners.

In the south, a mulatto rising drives the whites into Les Cayes, but the whites of the Grand Anse are able to hold the peninsula, expel the mulattoes, arm their slaves and lead them against the mulattoes.

November 29:
The first Civil Commission, consisting of Mirbeck, Roume, and Saint-Léger, arrives at Le Cap to represent the French revolutionary government. Immediately on their arrival, the commissioners announce the swift arrival of military reinforcements from France.

December 10:
Negotiations are opened with Jean-François and Biassou, principal slave leaders in the north, who write a letter to the Commission expressing hopes for peace. The rebel leaders’ proposal asks liberty only for themselves and a couple of hundred followers, in exchange for which they promise to return the other rebels to slavery. As these negotiations proceed, plans develop to surrender the white prisoners. But when news of the leaders’ planned betrayal leaks to the black masses, they move to kill the prisoners instead. The whites are saved by Toussaint’s intercession and brought safely to Saint Michel plantation.

December 21:
An interview between the commissioners and Jean-François takes place at Saint Michel Plantation, on the plain a short distance from Le Cap.

Toussaint appears as an adviser of Jean-François during these negotiations, and represents the black leaders in subsequent unsuccessful meetings at Le Cap, following the release of white prisoners. But although the commissioners are delighted with the peace proposition, the colonists want to hold out for total submission. Invoking the September 14 decree, the colonists undercut the authority of the Commission with the rebels and negotiations are broken off.

In the aftermath of this failure, the black insurgents strike against Le Cap. They break through the Eastern Cordon and sack and burn the Plain of Fort Dauphin. Negroes and mulattoes of La Môle revolt and take the Cordon of the West from the rear, massacring a large camp of refugees.

Also during this time occurs a widening breach between the Commission and the Colonial Assembly. The commissioners wish to claim dictatorial authority, while the radicals in the Colonial Assembly begin trying to get rid of them altogether. The Le Cap radicals begin to seek support outside the Assembly, among the
petit blancs
of the town.

1792

January 11:
The September decree is reaffirmed by the Legislative Assembly in France.

January 25:
Governor Blancheland writes that the recalcitrance of the Legislative Assembly in sending military aid “is reducing the people to absolute despair.” In France, the Jacobins maintain their policy even though it is practically self-destructive—with people at home discontent over sugar and coffee shortages. In England, William Pitt jests that the French prefer their coffee “
au caramel
.”

February:
Jacobins in France renew their attempts to repeal the September decree. Even conservatives in France begin to become impatient with the white colonial refusal to accept the mulattoes as political equals, given that the mulattoes themselves are unalterably opposed to black emancipation. A rejoinder from the colonists suggests that for the mulattoes political equality is meant as a step on the way to social equality, intermarriage, etc.

March 30:
Mirbeck, despairing of the situation in Le Cap and fearing assassination, embarks for France, his fellow commissioner Roume agreeing to follow three days later. But Roume gets news of a royalist counterrevolution brewing in Le Cap and decides to remain, hoping he can keep Blanchelande loyal to the Republic.

April 4:
In France there occurs the signing of a new decree by the Legislative Assembly, which gives full rights of citizenship to mulattoes and free blacks, calls for new elections on that basis, and establishes a new three-man Commission with dictatorial powers to enforce the decree and an army to back them.

April 9:
With the Department of the West reduced to anarchy again, Saint-Léger escapes on a warship sailing to France.

May:
War is declared between French and Spanish Saint Domingue.

May 11:
News of the April 4 decree arrives in Saint Domingue. Given the nastiness of the race war and the atrocities committed against whites by mulatto leaders like Candi in the north and others in the south and west, this decree is considered an outrage by the whites. By this time, the whites (except on the Grand Anse) have all been crammed into the ports and have given up the interior of the country for all practical purposes. The Colonial Assembly accepts the decree, having little choice for the moment, and no ability to resist the promised army. The mulattoes are delighted, and so is Roume.

August 10:
Storming of the Tuileries by Jacobin-led mob, virtual deposition of the king, call for a Convention in France.

September 18:
Three new commissioners arrive at Le Cap to enforce the April 4 decree. Sonthonax, Polverel, and Ailhaud are all Jacobins. Colonists immediately suspect a plan to emancipate the slaves (which may or may not have been a part of Sonthonax’s original program). The commissioners are accompanied by two thousand troops of the line and four thousand National Guards, under the command of General Desparbés. But the commissioners distrust the general and get on poorly with him because of their tendency to trespass on his authority.

Unsure of his welcome, Sonthonax sends a fast ship ahead and gets news from Blanchelande before his arrival. Blanchelande reports fewer than fifteen hundred troops fit for duty against an estimated sixty thousand rebel slaves on the northern plain.

The Commission organizes a Jacobin Club for the
petit blancs
of Le Cap, who are chafing under virtual martial law imposed by royalist Colonel Cambefort. Soon the commissioners deport Blanchelande to France.

October 12:
The commissioners dissolve the Colonial Assembly, and set up a
Commission Intermédiaire
composed of six whites, five mulattoes and one free black. Around this time, news of the August 10 capture of the king reaches Saint Domingue and freshens colonial fears of the commissioners and the Jacobin movement generally. The royalists of Le Cap, with strong support from Cambefort’s Regiment Le Cap and from two battalions of Irish mercenaries, begin to plot against the Commission, profiting from General Desparbés’ disaffection.

October 17:
Fighting breaks out between the royalist troops and the Le Cap Jacobins. The Jacobins seize the arsenal, and Desparbés orders troops out against them. A face-off ensues between the mercenaries and the Le Cap regiment against the National Guard, the latter standing by the commissioners. Desparbés backs down and is sent along with Cambefort and other royalist officers to France as a prisoner. This defeat practically destroys the northern royalist faction.

October 24:
General Rochambeau, expelled from Martinique which is now royalist-controlled, lands in Le Cap with two thousand men and is appointed to replace Desparbés as governor-general.

The Commission led by Sonthonax begins to fill official posts with mulattoes, now commonly called “citizens of April 4.” During this period, Rochambeau’s efforts against the rebels on the plain are frustrated by the need to keep troops in Le Cap to hold down dissension stimulated by Sonthonax. Sonthonax is alienating the
petit blancs
by creating a bureaucracy of mulattoes at their expense. In the end, Sonthonax closes the Jacobin Club and deports its leaders.

The Regiment Le Cap’s remaining officers refuse to accept the mulattoes Sonthonax has appointed to fill vacancies left by royalists who have either been arrested or had resigned.

December 1:
Young Colonel Etienne Laveaux is sent to try to recall the disaffected Le Cap officers to the fold, but his efforts are ineffective.

December 2:
The Regiment Le Cap, without cartridges, meets the new mulatto companies on parade in the Champ de Mars. When it’s discovered that cartridges (hidden under bread) are being supplied to the mulattoes, fighting breaks out between the two halves of the regiment and the white mob. The mulattoes leave the town and capture the fortifications at the entrance to the plain, and the threat of an assault from the black rebels forces the whites of the town to capitulate.