San Domingo, a small colony given this name by Columbus, had all the wealth of the colonies in all the world by producing more sugar than any other colony in the world. It became a British colony 1697 to 1791.
After the American Revolution in 1776 and the French Revolution in 1789 many of the enslaved began to start revolts. The French Revolution produce the statement that no man is above the other but that wasn’t practiced because those who were of mixed race did not have the same rights as those who were white and those who were enslaved had no rights at all.
One of the revolutionary leaders was named Bookman and after he died the revolution movement and vision almost died with him. There were negotiations for some of the enslaved to return back to the plantations but the French wanted all of the slaves to return so the revolt continued.
Toussaint Louverture was in the rebel camp at first. He was a medicine man and also took care of the horses. He was the negotiator with France but that did not work out.
The revolts were not successful because of the weapons used such as machetes. So the revolters asked the Spanish to help them with food and how to fight the French.
A commissioner signed a decree which abolished slavery and 1793 he stated the only thing they could do was to abolish slavery he wrote the decree that stated that slavery had ended.
Now Toussaint had a dilemma. The dilemma was to stay with the Spanish who had helped them to victory but still had slavery or to go back to the French who had just abolished slavery. To stop push the Spanish back but the French did not like that the slaves were free.
The French opened their doors to the British and then the British took over the colony. Toussaint and Lego ruled Haiti Toussaint ruled the North and Lego ruled the South. Everything was going well but in 1799 there was a dispute started between the two. Now Napoleon was told to divide the two which started the fight and the French wanted their land and slaves back but was defeated and the officials went back to France and Toussaint was the ruler of all of Haiti. Toussaint stated that Blacks should rule blacks. All the whites were sent back to their countries.
France, was a monarch and beheaded King Louie the 16th and then became a republic and then became a dictatorship under Napoleon. Toussaint continued to rule the entire island with 10,000 soldiers.
Napoleon had complete control of France and wrote a constitution for France with no laws to govern the colonies. Toussaint wrote a constitution for the colonies which again abolished slavery forever and and made him governor for life.
Napoleon did not accept this and called Toussaint the gilded negro and thought he needed to stop the march of the Blacks. Napoleon sent 20 to 80,000 soldiers to the island and was going to take the island over and arrest The general and put everyone back into slavery and he hoped to accomplish all these plans in 30 days.
Kristoff held the soldiers back and Toussaint took the people up into the mountains because he felt if they waited out the rainy season the soldiers would die from the yellow fever. There was a woman leading one of the battles and her name was Marie Jean.
After more negotiations the hostilities between the French and the Haitians ended and Toussaint retired and went on a plantation to live with his family.
Later, Toussaint was arrested and taken to France where after being put in a castle and not being fed well or cared for died April 7th 1803.
A decade later Napoleon stated, “My decision to destroy the Blacks of the island, was not about money or fortune, but to keep Blacks from gaining power in the world,” but later he said he should have let Toussaint rule Haiti.
Haiti gained it’s Independence as a free country on January 1, 1804. This is their Independence Day. Every January 1st they eat soup made with squash to celebrate.
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