The French revolution in San Domingo

Preface

The world-wide struggle between the primary races of mankind — the "conflict of color," as it has been happily termed — bids fair to be the fundamental problem of the twentieth century, and great communities like the United States of America, the South African Confederation, and Australasia regard the "color question" as perhaps the gravest problem of the future. To our age, therefore, the French Revolution in San Domingo — the first great shock between the ideals of white supremacy and race equality, which erased the finest of European colonies from the map of the white world and initiated that most noted attempt at negro self-government, the black republic of Haiti — cannot but be of peculiar interest.

Strangely enough, the real story of this tremendous racial and social cataclysm has never been told, and it is to fill this gap in the history of modern times that this book has been written. For, be it noted, in this field, the race question, important though it be, is not the sole noteworthy element. San Domingo in 1789 was the most striking example of French colonial genius, and the struggle of the colony's formative ideals with the new political, economic, and social conceptions of the French Revolution is of great importance to the history of European colonization. The attempt to apply the Revolutionary ideals to an environment so radically different from that of France viii PREFACE

yields a most valuable side-light to the study of the French Revolution itself, while the attempt made under the Consulate to restore French authority and economic prosperity to San Domingo is one of the most illuminating episodes in the career of the master-figure of the age — Napoleon Bonaparte.

The keynote to the history of the French Revolution in San Domingo is a great tragedy, — the tragedy of the annihilation of the white population. The period opens in 1789 with a resident white population of nearly 40,000 souls, at the very pinnacle of material prosperity and possessed of a complex social organization, jealously guarding its supremacy and race identity in face of a large caste of half-breeds whose only bond of interest with their white superiors was a common exploitation of some half -million negro slaves. The period closes sixteen years later with the complete annihilation of the last remnants of the white population, the subordination of the mulatto caste to the negroes, and the destruction of the island's economic prosperity.

In this grim tragedy the chief figure is that of the black leader Toussaint Louverture. Unfortunately it seems improbable that the mists enveloping his personality will ever be cleared away. Extremely little first-class material exists, and practically everything written about him is of such doubtful value that his figure seems destined to remain forever shrouded in the haze of legend and tradition.

Excluding my five opening chapters of an introductory nature, describing the condition of San Domingo in 1789, the body of the work falls under two main heads. The

PREFACE ix

first of these is the downfall of white supremacy, brought about by internal dissensions, by the revolt of the mulattoes and negroes, and by the vigorous determination of Revolutionary France to destroy the colonial ideals of slavery and the color line. This culminates in the general collapse of white authority in the year 1793. The second main heading of the book is the progress of black supremacy, personified in the career of Toussaint Louverture. After seven years of constant struggle this supremacy becomes absolute; the English invaders are expelled, the mulattoes crushed, the Spanish portion of the island overrun, and French authority reduced to a vain shadow. By the year 1800, Toussaint Louverture is absolute master of San Domingo. But his power is short-lived. France is now under the First Consul Bonaparte, and the peace with England in 1801 frees his hands for the restoration of San Domingo to France. Under the shock of Leclerc's expedition Toussaint's power collapses, and though the complete conquest of San Domingo is delayed by yellow fever and Napoleon's restoration of slavery, the French triumph is averted only by the renewal of the struggle between France and England in 1803. The English war is, however, fatal to the French cause. Within a year the island is completely lost, and shortly afterward the last French colonists are exterminated by the negro leader Dessalines. White San Domingo has become only a memory, and the black State of Haiti makes its appearance in the world's history.

Of the source-materials for the present work, by far the ' richest collections are those preserved in the French archives, a full description of which may be found in the x PREFACE

appended bibliography. It is almost certain that no archival material remains in San Domingo itself. Toussaint's papers were captured by the French in 1802, and but few documents can have survived the century of civil strife which sums up Haiti's turbulent history. The printed material on San Domingo is extensive. From the earliest times the island attracted attention, the first writers on San Domingo being learned ecclesiastics. As early as 1733 the Jesuit Charlevoix published a four-volume history of the island, based upon still earlier unpublished writings. After the Seven Years' War (1763), San Domingo was by far the most important French colony, and the lively interest displayed by French thought on political and economic questions resulted in a considerable number of writings concerning the island. This growing literature was soon swelled by the humanitarian antislavery agitation which began to be noticeable after 1770. The outbreak of the French Revolution saw a flood of books, pamphlets, and brochures of every description and shade of opinion upon colonial questions in general and San Domingo in particular, and the intensity of output continues till the year 1793, when it sharply declines owing to the repressive influence of the Terror. The revived interest in colonial affairs under Bonaparte and the prospects of a restoration of white authority in San Domingo called forth a large number of writings from exiled colonists, while Leclerc's expedition resulted in several accounts by officers and civilians. The years following the Bourbon restoration in 1814 saw a series of writings by exiled colonists similar to that following the establishment of the Consulate in 1799, noted above; for France

PREFACE xi

had not renounced her claims on San Domingo and many persons hoped that the Bourbons would follow Napoleon's example after the Peace of Amiens, now that the general pacification of 1815 had again given the French fleets the freedom of the sea. When this hope was seen to be a vain one, however, interest in San Domingo died away. The few writings on the island during the years preceding the final abolition of slavery in the French colonies in 1848 are of little value. Of late years the subject has been touched upon by modern writers on the Old Regime and on Napoleon, while some twenty -five years ago an American writer (Mills) wrote a scholarly treatise directly on the first two years of the French Revolution in San Domingo, though he did not utilize any of the unpublished archival material. Critical notices upon all the important books in this field may be found in the appended bibliography. In closing I desire to express my profound appreciation to all those who have so kindly assisted me in my work; especially, to Professor A. C. Coolidge, of Harvard University, the inspirer of the present volume; to Professors R. M. Johnston and R. B. Merriman, of Harvard University, for their suggestions on certain parts of the book; and to Messrs. Waldo G. Leland and Abel Doysie, of the Carnegie Bureau for Historical Research, for their assistance in my French archival researches. I desire also to express my appreciation of the privileges extended me by the Library of Harvard University, which so greatly facilitated my examination of printed material.

T. Lothrop Stoddard.

Boston, June 20, 1914.

Contents

I. INTRODUCTION AND EARLY HISTORY ... 1

Approach to San Domingo. Area. Spanish Conquest. The Buccaneers. Their Impress on San Domingo.

II. NATURAL FEATURES, POPULATION, AND GOV- ERNMENT 6

II Natural Features, Population, And Government

In 1789 French San Domingo was the gem of the West Indies, and the spectacle of its marvellous prosperity was perhaps enhanced by contrast with its Spanish neighbor. A short journey away from the fierce energy of the west coast across the border mountain wall brought one to a land where it was always afternoon: the same soil and a better climate had here produced only a deepening lethargy. Santo Domingo, the capital, was a handsome, picturesque old town, with many stately landmarks of its early prosperity, but elsewhere all was decay and solitude. 1 The total population was barely 125,000. These were mostly ranchers and herdsmen, for there was almost no agriculture and only some fourteen thousand slaves. Of the free population about half were rated white, though the color line seems to have been pretty loosely drawn. 2

French San Domingo was divided into three provinces, ■ — the North, the West, and the South; this order corresponding to date of settlement and relative importance. The North Province was the oldest, richest, and most densely populated. Its glory was the incomparable " Plaine du Nord" : its chief city, Cap Francais (colloquially known as "Le Cap"), was the metropolis of the colony. 3 The North Province was shut off from the rest of the island by a difficult mountain-chain running east and west, which continued out into the sea as a high peninsula tipped by the strong fortress of the M61e-Saint-Nicolas, the "Gibraltar of the Antilles." Although the North was so largely mountainous, the valleys were of great fertility and the lower hill-slopes eminently suited to coffeeplanting. Only about the Mole was there a dry and sterile region unfit for agriculture. 4

The West Province embraced the central portion of the colony, and much of the southern part as well. A glance at the map will show its extraordinary irregularity of outline, pressed close to the sea as it was by the sinuous mountain wall of the Spanish border. It must be noted that much of the long southern peninsula, which was the colony's most striking geographical feature, fell within its jurisdiction.

Although nearly twice the size of the North, the West Province was not soVwell favored by nature. The mountain ranges to north and east cut off the rainfall, and made its climate hot and unhealthful; precipitation came mostly from violent thunderstorms which were often more a damage than a benefit. Its prosperity in 1789 was largely due to elaborate irrigation, which made possible the regular cultivation of its plains. These were three in number: the wide, inland valley of the Artibonite in the upper portion of the Province, the small but rich plain of Leogane at the base of the southern peninsula, and the great plain of Cul-de-Sac, in rear of the city of Port-au-Prince. 5

Port-au-Prince, although dating only from the middle of the eighteenth century, was a thriving town of some eight thousand inhabitants. The produce of the Cul-de- Sac made it a busy port, while its selection as the colonial capital gave it added importance. Its appearance, however, was far inferior to that of Le Cap, for the prevalence of earthquakes made it a town of low wooden houses, which European visitors slightingly compared to a Tartar camp. 6

The South Province was in all respects the least important. Its small area was entirely confined to the long southern peninsula, in reality little more than a mountain ridge sloping precipitately to the sea. Still largely undeveloped, the South's rather primitive economic and social conditions recalled the earlier times. It was, however, not devoid of possibilities, for there were many fertile valleys, and a real plain behind its busy little capital, Les Cayes. 7 One thing should be especially noted; — a narrow strip of sea alone separated the South Province from the English island of Jamaica, and a close intercourse had always existed in defiance of the laws against contraband trade. 8 In the storms of the Revolution this was to have imp crtant consequences.

The population of San Domingo was divided into three castes: the whites, the "free colored" (including both mulattoes and negroes), and the slaves. It is impossible to discover their numbers for the year 1789 with any great accuracy. The last official census was taken in 1788, and it seems to have been far from accurate. No official returns for the slave population can be trusted, since the planters made false reports to avoid the head-tax on their human chattels.

The official returns for 1788 give slightly under 28,C00 whites, 22,000 free colored, and some 405,000 slaves. 9 For the year 1789 we have no official returns, but we do possess two estimates from experts worthy of every consideration. The Intendant Barb6-Marbois, an exceedingly careful man whose official position ensured him accurate information, estimates the whites at 35,500, the free colored at 26,600, and the slaves at 400,000. 10 The deeply learned Moreau de Saint-Mery gives as his figures, 39,000 whites, 27,500 free colored, and 452,000 slaves. 11

The climate of San Domingo was very bad, — possibly the worst of the West Indies. Official correspondence almost always mentions the writers' failing health, while the history of military operations in the island is one long tragedy of disease, from the decimation of the Anglo- Spanish expeditions in the wars of Louis XIV down to the final catastrophic annihilation of Napoleon's great army in 1803.

The writers on San Domingo unite in a general condemnation. "In this climate," writes an intelligent traveller about the year 1785, "the European must be always on his guard. The sun is a danger, the evening-cool a menace, the rain not less fatal." 12 Good health could be preserved only by abstemious living and the most careful precautions. 13 Hilliard d'Auberteuil's is the only voice raised in its favor, 14 but he is obviously making a polemical point, 15 — and his words called forth protests of amazement and indignation. "To-day," writes a colonist, "is the 30th of January; it is four o'clock in the afternoon; — and I am obliged to prop up Monsieur d'Auberteuil's book because I am sweating such great drops. What has caused this? — the climate or Monsieur d'Auberteuil's assertions? We will let him settle the question." 16

The hot months from April to September were the most unhealthful; they were the time of malaria and yellow fever. But the cooler rainy season was also scourged by intestinal troubles. 17 The only healthful spots were the barren island of Tortuga, and the dry and sterile district of the Mole-Saint-Nicolas.

Although the storms of the Revolution were to prove that the population of San Domingo had neither forgotten its early history nor lost its turbulent character, the profound transformations of the preceding half-century had greatly altered the spirit of government. Increase in wealth and closer connections with France had enabled the Bourbon Monarchy to tighten its grip upon the island.

"The government of the colony vested ultimately in the Minister of Marine, representing the King." 18 His edicts were laws, and he appointed the high officials. 19 But Paris was distant a six-weeks voyage, and the local heads of government were in practice the supreme authority. "Heads," be it remarked; for the local power was twofold, ■ — the Governor and the Intendant. No parallel should be drawn with their fellows of contemporary France, for the Governor of San Domingo was the stronger factor. 20

Theoretically each was assigned a special sphere, with a middle ground of joint activity. The Governor was the titular representative of the Crown, the military chief, and the medium of external relations. The Intendant, whose office dated only from the beginning of the eighteenth century, 21 headed the civil administration and the judiciary. 22

But this division of powers remained largely a theory. To begin with, the respective spheres had never been permanently delimited. "The powers of the Governors were not fixed definitely by law, but were described in the commission given to each appointee and varied from time to time. To a Governor possessing a greater degree of the King's confidence, especial power would be given." 23 That large range of duties in which joint action was prescribed was another fruitful source of ambiguity. And, to these inherent difficulties, there was added the personal element. The Governor was always an old soldier or sailor; the Intendant always a bureaucrat. To place members of the "Noblesse d'Epee" and the "Noblesse de Robe" upon a remote island with interlaced authority was to court the usual result, — chronic rivalries and usurpations, which extended down through every grade of the administrations. 24 For each stood at the head of a numerous official hierarchy which naturally espoused the cause of its superior. 25 All eighteenth-century writers are loud in their censure of the endless confusion and scandal. "This hybrid civil and military administration called a government," exclaims Hilliard d'Auberteuil in 1776, "has degenerated into a frightful mixture of tyranny and anarchy." 26

In these struggles the Governor generally came off victorious. He was not only master of the regular military forces, but also head of the elaborate militia and gendarmerie system demanded by the island's strategic position and immense slave population. 27 His local commandants sometimes usurped both civil and judicial authority, and governed their districts under virtual martial law. 28 But the Intendant always opposed an annoying obstructionism, continuously invoked the intervention of the

Minister of Marine, and courted the favor of certain elements of the colonial population. 29

As might have been expected, such a regime had a harsh and arbitrary character. 30 Its incumbents, however, boldly defended its necessity. "Yes," writes a Governor in 1761, "authority is in the hands of the military power: but this is the natural consequence of the colony's origin and present condition. Eight thousand whites capable of bearing arms are dispersed along three hundred leagues of coast. Nearly two hundred thousand blacks, their slaves and potential enemies, are about them day and night. Furthermore, these are men not bound to the land by ties of birth, loyalty, and blood, but drawn by self-interest frcm many regions." 31

Nevertheless, though arbitrary and severe, the Government of San Domingo was by no means so black as painted by the democratic theorists of the time. Such a population, with arms in its hands and the backing of past tradition, would not have submitted to a very grinding tyranny. A native planter like Venault de Charmilly describes the force of public opinion, favored as it was by the internecine struggles of authority itself. 32

But though there might be a dispute as to this Government's tyranny, there could be none whatever as to its costliness. 33 Bad finance was the besetting sin of the Old Regime, but nowhere was its disorder, wastefulness, and graft seen to better advantage than at San Domingo. In the year 1785 the Abbe Raynal had protested strongly against an expenditure of three million livres. 34 The official report of December, 1789, itemizes an expenditure of nearly five millions. 35 Taking Barbe-Marbois's census figures, this

POPULATION AND GOVERNMENT IS

would mean a yearly burden on the colonists of nearly one hundred and forty livres per head. The wealth of San Domingo, it is true, enabled it to carry the burden; but taxation was keenly felt, especially the hated poll-tax on slaves. 36

The mere presence of antiquated methods, red tape, and the lack of a well-audited budget produced much leakage. 37 But there was a great deal of downright graft besides. A conservative observer like the Baron de Wimpffen speaks scornfully of the venality of the Governors, 38 and official peculation seems to have been as brazen as it was serious. 39

Nevertheless, with all its faults, the Government was not without its good side. "Especially since the middle of the eighteenth century it had done much to better the economic situation of the island, had organized a, good police, clarified justice, and improved taxation." 40

But all this had been done in the spirit of the contemporary maxim, "Everything for the people, and nothing by the people." The official world was a caste of Europeans, in which the colonists had no part. 41 There was not even the humblest form of municipal self-government, 42 and the reforming era of Choiseul had given San Domingo only a couple of chambers of commerce. 43 It was this complete lack of political education which was to weigh so heavily in the Revolution. 44

Until well past the middle of the eighteenth century, San Domingo had possessed a native judiciary. If we are to believe the colonists, it was endowed with every virtue, 45 but the testimony of officials and travellers leaves a different impression. In 1711, a royal officer is greatly scandalized at the procedure of a magistrate who pronounced judgment between pipe-puffs, the while a district attorney allowed litigants to curse one another at pleasure. 46 And, although time seems to have lent more dignity, the conduct of the legal class remained unedifying. In 1750, a registrar, formerly the proprietor of a gambling-house, installed a faro layout amid his official records to while away his idle moments. 47

Nevertheless, though crude and unlearned in the law, this colonial judiciary seems to have given cheap and speedy justice in accordance with local conditions. 48 Not so the trained European lawyers who replaced them. Their procedure was as tedious at San Domingo as in the Parliament de Paris, and their pedantic application of French precedents to radically diverse cases was a constant source of injustice and irritation. 49 "The erudition of these gentlemen," exclaims Raynal, "has well taught us that the Coutume de Paris and the Institutes of Justinian were drawn up under a latitude very remote from that of San Domingo." 60 This impatience at the slowness and pedantry of the courts caused executive encroachment, and royal officers often usurped judicial functions, especially as they were thus striking at henchmen of the hated Intendant. 51 The cost of this latter-day justice seems to have been very great. De Wimpffen states that the Provincial Court at Jacmel had a budget of over four hundred thousand livres a year. 52

In 1789, San Domingo " had attained a height of prosperity not surpassed in the history of European colonies. The greatest part of its soil was covered by plantations on a gigantic scale which supplied half Europe with sugar, coffee, and cotton." 53 And the degree of this prosperity was increasing by leaps aDd bounds. Since 1786, "the planters had doubled their products, and a large amount of French capital had poured into the island for investment — a hundred millions from Bordeaux alone. The returns were already splendid and still greater were expected." 54

San Domingo had undergone the economic transformation of the other islands. In the seventeenth century its products had been tobacco, cocoa, and indigo. These had been grown by many small proprietors of modest fortune, with the aid of white indentured servants and a few slaves. 55

But the coming of sugar changed all this. The produc- K tion of sugar is as much an industrial as it is an agricultural operation; it requires broad acres, a costly plant, and large working capital. The small holders quickly vanished before huge plantations worked by great gangs of slaves. 56 In 1789, the number of sugar-plantations was close upon eight hundred. 57

However, sugar was by no means San Domingo's only product. Its cultivation was necessarily restricted to the plains and broader valleys, but French thrift had utilized everything except the mountain crests. 58 It is true that tobacco and cocoa had practically gone and that indigo was fast going, but other staples had come to take their place. First among these stood coffee, whose three thousand plantations covered every mountainside; while the cotton acreage was advancing year by year. The less favored districts were given up to pasture which fed some two hundred and fifty thousand cattle and swine. 59

Such a colony was patently the most precious over-seas possession of France. The imports from her American colonies for the year 1789 totalled two hundred and eighteen million livres, 60 fully three fourths of which came from San Domingo. 61 Furthermore, of these imports France reexported nearly two thirds, mostly after economic transformations which supported many branches of her industrial system. 62 In supplying the wants of the island, both the industry and the agriculture of France were interested. The fifty million livres of exports to San Domingo included everything from foodstuffs to tobaccopipes; — "in a word, every object indispensable to civilized life." 63 Lastly, to all these profits there must be added the rich returns from the slave trade, 64 and San Domingo's predominant share in maintaining the fleet of a thousand ships and fifteen thousand sailors trading with the colonies. 65

The splendid position of San Domingo might seem to have meant contented colonists; — in reality, they were hot with discontent: though prosperous, they well knew that they might have been more prosperous still. For they saw themselves the victims of that tyrannous economic system known as the "Pacte Coloniale." 66

Normand has well summarized the principles of this system under five rules: (1) the colony must send its products only to the mother country; (2) the colony must buy only from the mother country; (3) the colony must establish no manufactures; (4) the mother country agreed to buy its tropical products only from the colony; (5) the carrying-trade with the colony must be the monopoly of the mother country's merchant marine. 67

It is clear that only the fourth rule favored the colony; — the others sacrificed it to the mother country in the most ruthless fashion. Yet at the time, no principle was more generally established than the "Pacte Coloniale" : all nations held it to be the keystone of colonial policy, and Colbert's dictum, " Colonies are founded by and for the mother country," 68 was considered an axiom. Even the intellect of a Chatham could contend that the colonies should not be allowed to make a nail or a horse-shoe. " The mother country saw in her colonists only a special kind of subjects, predestined to receive her products at an excessively high price and to yield theirs at a value abnormally lowered by the absolute lack of foreign markets and consequent competition." 69 They were "in every respect victims of monopoly." 70

But, although the system of France was no stricter than her neighbors', it bore with especial hardship on her colonies. The reason for this was that the French merchant marine, although granted the monopoly of the carrying-trade, was quite inadequate to the supplying of the colonies. 71 Indeed, it showed no real desire to do so, and strove to keep up famine prices by this artificial scarcity. 72 The bitter gibes of De Wimpffen show the deep indignation felt at this conduct. 73

And if the French colonies were kept short in normal times, how was it during the long wars of the eighteenth century, when the superior English fleets swept the French flag from the sea? For, be it understood, this was no mere question of annoyance or of loss, but a matter of downright life and death. Not one of these over-specialized islands produced enough tropical foods to feed its negroes, while the whites lived almost entirely upon imported provisions. 74 Were no grain-ships to enter their harbors, the colonists would die like Midas in his treasure- chamber. As a matter of fact, great numbers of slaves at San Domingo died of hunger during the Seven Years' War. 75

Of course this preposterous state of things wrought its own cure. Smuggling had always existed at San Domingo; smuggling of the most flagrant character and with a backing of public approval which made its suppression impossible. A regular traffic existed with the English and Spanish islands, and with the North American continent. 78 Indeed, the Governors themselves openly permitted trading in times of especial scarcity. 77

The growing enlightenment of the eighteenth century had led the French Government to attempt to remedy the situation, though in hesitating fashion. In 1767, Choiseul established a port of entry for foreign trade at the M6le- Saint-Nicolas, although legalizing only a small list of the most necessary foodstuffs. 78 In 1784, further concessions were made by the opening of the chief ports (Le Cap, Port-au-Prince, and Les Cayes), and by an extension of the legal list. 79 Finally, the Anglo-French commercial treaty of 1786 and the Franco- American convention of 1787 broke a wide breach in the "Pacte Coloniale." 80

But, after all, the old system still existed in principle, and in 1789 the measures taken were either too partial or too recent to have produced much effect. In 1788, the foreign imports were only 7,000,000 livres, the exports only 3,700,000; 81 — not very much by comparison with the French trade. At the outbreak of the Revolution colonial discontent was bitter and unassuaged. 82

Ill

Though small in number, the white population of San Domingo x was in structure extraordinarily complex. Its lines of cleavage were both many and transverse. This handful of Europeans formed in one sense the Microcosm of contemporary France, since all French classes were there represented; 2 yet in spirit the two societies were by no means the same, for in San Domingo, class relations had been much modified by a tropical environment.

To form a correct idea of this colonial society is by no means easy. Its observers often differ in their impressions and in their judgments. Still, the main lines seem to be fairly clear. Differences of opinion arise usually on details; on fundamentals, the bulk of both private and official testimony is in agreement.