The Haitian Revolution
and the Forging of America
Breck School, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Junior Division Historical Paper, National History Day Competition
DURING THE NIGHT of
August 22, 1791, a wave of fire engulfed the French West Indies colony
of St. Domingue (present-day Haiti), as hundreds of thousands of slaves
set fire to plantations, torched cities, and massacred a terrified white
population. The slave rebellion that started that night--the most
successful slave rebellion in history--lasted 12 long years. It
culminated in the founding of the second independent nation in the
Western Hemisphere and its first black-governed republic. But more than
this, the Haitian Revolution was a turning point in history, the
repercussions of which extended far beyond the small island nation.
Perhaps nowhere was its impact greater than in the United States, where
Haiti's slave revolt figured directly in two of the most significant
events in United States history: the Louisiana Purchase and the American
In 1789, on the eve of the French
Revolution, St. Domingue was the world's most prosperous colony. It was
"an integral part of the economic life of the age, the greatest colony
in the world, the pride of France, and the envy of every other
Its plantation economy produced an abundance of crops, of which sugar
was by far the most important. At its peak, St. Domingue produced more
sugar than all the British Caribbean islands put together and was
responsible for forty percent of the overseas trade of France.2
The opening of New Orleans also resolved
a deeply divisive political problem. The French closing of the
Mississippi River to American traffic violated the 1783 Treaty of Paris.
Westerners, dependent on the Mississippi River and the port of New
Orleans to get their products to eastern markets, wondered why they
should pay taxes to a country that would not stand up for them, and they
threatened to become French citizens or secede from the United States
unless the government invaded Louisiana. The Louisiana Purchase ended
In a broader sense, the Purchase
fundamentally transformed the way Americans thought about themselves.
The vast open spaces of the Louisiana territory drew immigrants from all
over Europe, changing the character of the nation by increasing its
The push to settle this new territory shifted the eyes of the country
making further expansion almost inevitable and giving birth, if not to
the term, at least to the forces behind "manifest destiny"--the idea
that the United States had both a right and a duty to own and settle the
entire continent. Before the Louisiana annexation, Americans "in many
ways still had a colonial attitude; they still looked to England and to
With the acquisition the Louisiana territory, their focus shifted to
their own continent. "[F]or the first time, Americans became Americans
as we know them, people with a continental view."27
The Haitian Revolution initiated all of
this change. But its impact did not stop there. The revolt of the
Haitian slaves also influenced forces that helped foment what many have
called the defining moment in American history: the Civil War. The push
to create new states out of the vast Louisiana territory led to
dissension between North and South over whether the new states would be
admitted as slave or free. New England Federalists threatened to secede
rather than permit the delicate balance that had been worked out between
the mercantile states of the North and the slave-holding states of the
agrarian South to be upset.28
For the South, the stakes in this debate were raised by a boom in the
demand for cotton that coincided with the acquisition of the Louisiana
The plantation economy, dependent on slave labor, quickly spread to the
southern regions of the Louisiana territory. For these new planters, the
debate over slavery was an economic as well as a philosophical issue.
The tensions over the treatment of the slavery question in the states
carved out of the Louisiana territory would ultimately trigger guerrilla
warfare in Bleeding Kansas, which in turn was a factor leading to the
The impact of the Haitian Revolution on
the United States was not confined, however, to the
slave-versus-free-state debate. In the ante-bellum South, "No issue
having to do with slavery and the role of blacks in American society was
discussed at so many different times, in so many different ways, for so
many different reasons as the lessons of the Haitian Revolution."31
Reports of the fury vented by the Haitian slaves on their white
oppressors reached the United States, transmitted by refugees fleeing
St. Domingue. One eyewitness reported seeing "young children transfixed
upon the points of bayonets"32
Others described slaves dragging white planters from their homes and
tearing off their limbs one by one or strapping them to wooden racks and
sawing them in half.33
"Whites had always been aware of slaves as 'troublesome property,' but
only after St. Domingue did they react to the threat as a real one and
not just a potential one."34
Alarmed, they worried that once slaves "get a taste for freedom...they
will not easily be made to abandon the enterprise."35
Southern fears were not entirely
unfounded. Slave uprisings in the United States greatly increased after
1791, and evidence of a direct connection between this growing slave
unrest and the Haitian revolt exists. In the case of one major slave
revolt, the Denmark Vesey plot in 1802 to burn Charleston, South
Carolina, for example, evidence established that Vesey had communicated
with Haitian blacks and even expected a Haitian invasion to support his
rebellion in South Carolina.36
Reacting to the Haitian Revolution, southern slaveholders increased the
repression of their own slaves to prevent a similar revolt.37
Repressive measures were also directed at the large number of freed
blacks, feared by whites as a potential source of insurrection. Laws
were passed "to make it harder for masters to free their slaves,
regulation after regulation attempted to control the movements of Blacks
and to prohibit the assembly of, or indeed any contact between, free
Blacks and slaves."38
This repression impassioned the northern
Abolitionist movement and further polarized the North and South in the
years preceding the Civil War. The increased brutality directed toward
the slaves by fearful slaveholders became a central focus of the
Abolitionists' crusade to end slavery. They seized upon the example of
Toussaint as proof that blacks were not inferior to whites but were
instead quite capable of freedom.39
Moreover, measures undertaken in the South to discourage slave
uprisings, including the employment of the Army for slave control
activities and attacks on the right of assembly and petition, produced a
counter-reaction in the North, helping to broaden the anti-slavery
struggle "into a battle for the security of the democratic rights of
This development has been called "probably the most important force
strengthening the entire Abolitionist movement."41
In 1861, the tensions between North and South--exacerbated by events
that happened directly or indirectly because of Haiti--finally exploded
into the Civil War.
For the former slaves of St. Domingue,
the freedom for which they fought would prove ephemeral, largely erased
by a succession of dictators. But the impact of the Haitian Revolution
would be indelible in the United States, where a slave revolt on foreign
soil must, today, be recognized as a major turning point in American
EXAMPLES OF LAWS AND REGULATIONS ENACTED
IN SUBSTANTIAL PART IN REACTION TO THE
HAITIAN SLAVE REVOLT
- In 1794 and 1800, the federal
government passed anti-slave trade laws to prevent the possible
spread of the Haitian slave revolt to the U.S. The first prohibited
citizens from equipping ships engaged in slave trade commerce, and
the second prohibited Americans from serving aboard such ships or
from having any interest in their voyages. (Aptheker, 45).
- Beginning in 1792, southern states,
including South Carolina, Kentucky, North Carolina, Georgia, and
Maryland, passed laws restricting slave trade as a means of
preventing the possible infection of the U.S. by the Haitian
rebellion. South Carolina's statute prohibited the importation by
any one person of more than two slaves, and required that the slaves
imported be for personal use only. This law was subsequently
modified to retain a total ban only with respect to slaves from the
West Indies or South America. However, all imported slaves had to be
accompanied by a statement signed by two magistrates attesting that
the slaves had not been involved in any insurrection or revolt.
- In 1797, Baltimore, Maryland passed
an ordinance declaring all slaves imported from the West Indies
between 1792 and 1797 to be "dangerous to the peace and welfare of
the city" and ordering their masters to banish them. (Ibid., 74).
- Many southern states enacted
measures restricting the civil liberties of blacks, including laws
forbidding meetings of slaves without the presence of whites,
prohibiting the assembly of blacks on city streets after dark,
requiring slaves to have passes when off plantation, forbidding
slaves to possess weapons, and providing severe penalties for
sedition. (Ibid., 73-74).
- A South Carolina regulation made it
necessary for a magistrate and five freeholders to approve a
document of manumission, freeing slaves from bondage. One of the
stated reasons for this regulation was a concern that slaveholders
would release slaves "of bad or depraved character" who might incite
rebellion once freed. (Ibid. 75)
- Freed blacks were restricted in
their right to hold certain jobs or learn certain trades that might
make it easier for them to organize a rebellion. They were also
restricted in their freedom of movement from state to state or
county to county. (Ibid., 77-78).
- In some states, blacks were
prevented from testifying in court against white persons; this
restriction had the effect of preventing blacks from defending
themselves against charges that they were part of a slave
- Shortly after the Vesey Plot to burn
Charleston was aborted, white Carolinians took measures to ensure
that free blacks were given even less freedom. As part of this
effort, in December 1832, the South Carolina legislature enacted the
Free-Colored Seamen's Act, requiring that all free blacks employed
on incoming vessels be detained in jail while their ship was in
port. (Hunt, 120).
A Particular Account of the Commencement and Progress of the
Insurrection of the Negroes in St. Domingo. London: J. Sewell, 1792.
This is a translation of a speech made to the French National Assembly
by the Deputies from the General Assembly of St. Domingue explaining the
origins of the slave revolt. The viewpoint presented is that of the
white planters. The speech describes in graphic detail the horrors of
the slave insurrection and the gruesome murder of the white population
at the hands of the slaves. The Deputies suggest that there would not
have been an insurrection except for the activities of the Amis de Noirs
(literally "Friends of the Blacks") which fomented discontent among the
black population. This speech is interesting because it is a first
person account and helpful in explaining the position of the white
An Inquiry into the Causes of
the Insurrection of the Negroes in the Island of St. Domingo.
Philadelphia: Crukshank, 1792.
Like the preceding entry, this too is a translation of remarks made to
the French National Assembly looking into the causes of the slave revolt
in St. Domingue. Unlike the previous entry, however, these remarks
reject the arguments of the white planters as to the origins of the
revolution and instead lay the blame at their feet. This report suggests
that the unwillingness of the white planters to extend equal rights to
the mulattos was the source of the discontent which eventually spread to
the slave population.
Aptheker, Herbert. American Negro
Slave Revolts.  5th ed. New York: International Publishers,
This book could be considered both a primary and a secondary source. It
is a complete and very well documented account of the history of
resistance to slavery in the United States. The author's analysis is
insightful and was very helpful to me in preparing my paper. However,
what was even more helpful was the primary source material which helped
document just how big an impact the Haitian Revolution had on the United
States in the pre-Civil War period. This book is one of the best sources
Howard, Thomas Phipps. The Haitian
Journal of Lieutenant Howard, York Hussiers, 1796-1798. Knoxville:
University of Tennessee Press, 1986.
This is a first-hand account of the Haitian Revolution written by a
lieutenant in a regiment of the British expeditionary force sent to St.
Domingue. As was true of the French forces, the British forces were
repelled and soundly defeated by the Haitian army led by Toussaint
L'Ouverture. This journal vividly describes Lieutenant Howard's
experiences during the final two years of Britain's occupation of St.
Domingue. The editor of this book notes that it is probably "the only
reliable firsthand military account in English" of the slave uprising.
The journal is interesting because of what it tells us about the slave
rebellion and the military history of a doomed expedition. In the
process, it provides insight into the military leadership of Toussaint
from someone who fought against him.
Lassat, Pierre-Clement de. Louisiana,
Napoleon, and the United States. Lamham: University Press of
This book, written by the man who was designated by Napoleon to become
the governor of French Louisiana, is an excellent primary source of
information pertaining to the events leading up to the sale of Louisiana
to the United States. The book contains particularly interesting
insights into Napoleon's thought process in deciding precipitously to
Marbois, M. Barbe. The History of
Louisiana. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1977.
This primary source, written by the then-French Minister of the
Treasury, provides not only a masterly written and very informative
account of the history of Louisiana but also first person insight into
the thoughts of Napoleon at the time he decided to sell the Louisiana
territory to the United States. The author was the French representative
to the negotiations which led to the sale of Louisiana.
Mullin, Michael, et. American Negro
Slavery: A Documentary History. Columbia: University of South
Carolina Press, 1976.
This book traces the history of black slaves in America through original
primary source materials, including diaries, public records, newspaper
accounts, and personal correspondence. These documents help you
understand what it was like to be a slave in America, as well as how the
slaves were perceived by white society. For purposes of my paper, the
book was useful because it contained a series of accounts pertaining to
Denmark Vesey, the leader of one of the largest planned slave
insurrections in U.S. history, and a man who clearly drew inspiration
from the Haitian slave revolt. Vesey was born in Africa and was brought
to the Caribbean, and specifically to St. Domingue, by his master. He
had an opportunity to observe first hand the Haitian revolt. Vesey
eventually purchased his freedom with a lottery ticket, after which he
moved to the United States and settled in Charleston, South Carolina, a
city which had a long history of contact with the West Indies. There he
carefully planned a slave revolt involving thousands of slaves. His
plans were to take the entire city and, eventually, to escape to Haiti.
His plot was foiled, however, and Vesey and thirty-five others were
tried and hanged. One of the excerpts in this book reports on the Vesey
trial, in which Vesey took the stand and defended himself.
Ott, Thomas O. The Haitian Revolution.
Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1973.
This book could be listed as both a primary and a secondary source.
Although it is written by a contemporary author, it contains much
primary source material. The book is a history of the Haitian Revolution
told in large part through first hand accounts. It has a particularly
good discussion of the consequences of the Revolution for the United
States. This source provided me with first hand explanations of the
events that were taking place in Haiti at the time of the rebellion.
This book does a particularly nice job of telling, through first hand
accounts, of the impact of the Haitian Revolution on the South.
Parham, Althia de Puech, ed. My
Odyssey: Experiences of a Young Refugee from Two Revolutions by a Creole
of Saint Domingue. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press,
This is the first person account of the French and Haitian Revolutions
told by a young French Creole author (16 years old at the time of the
events described in the book) whose family fled the terrors of the
French Revolution in 1791 and moved back to Haiti seeking asylum.
Unfortunately, they returned to St. Domingue just in time to be caught
up in the slave revolt. The family stayed in St. Domingue about two
years, during which time the young author fought on the side of the
French planters in many uprisings. After the horrible massacre and
burning of Cap Francais, a major city in St. Domingue, the family once
again fled, this time to the United States.
Although I wasn't able to use this book very much in my paper, due to
page constraints, it is a fascinating account of the Haitian Revolution
from the perspective of an actual participant. According to the editor,
who is a distant relative of the author, this is the only first person
account available which is told from the side of the French planters.
This book provides a fascinating account of the situation in St.
Domingue immediately prior to the slave revolt, the events that actually
took place during the author's two visits to the embattled island (the
second coming in 1794 when the author returned to St. Domingue from the
United States to fight on the side of the French against the rebels.
Rus, Martin. Night of Fire: The Black
Napoleon and the Battle for Haiti. New York: Sarpedon Publishers,
Although this book could be considered a secondary source, I have
treated as a primary source because of its many primary source quotes.
The book traces the history of the Haitian Revolution from the
pre-Revolution brutality leveled by white plantation owners at the
slaves to the uprising itself.
Ryan, Mary C., ed. The Louisiana
Purchase. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records
This book contains copies of documents pertaining to the purchase by the
United States of the Louisiana territory, including the actual purchase
agreement. It also contains a good discussion of the consequences for
the United States of the purchase of the Louisiana territory.
Stephen, James. The Crisis of the
Sugar Colonies; or An Enquiry Into The Objects and Probable Effects of
the French Expedition to West Indies. London: J. Hatchard, 1802.
This document consists of a series of four letters written by a James
Stephen to the British Prime Minister offering advice concerning the
situation in St. Domingue following the slave uprising and on the eve of
Napoleon's ill-fated attack. It is unclear who Mr. Stephen is and
whether his letters are an official report solicited by the Prime
Minister or simply voluntary comments. The letters are interesting for a
number of reasons. In the first letter discussing conditions in the West
Indies that led to the slave insurrection, Mr. Stephen provides an
excellent description of the harsh conditions under which the St.
Domingue slaves were forced to work. The other part of these letters
which I found to be of particular interest were the British predictions
as to what Napoleon was intending when he sent troops toward St.
Domingue. The author of these letters guessed correctly that Napoleon
wanted more than simply to persuade Toussaint and his band of rebels to
swear allegiance to the French. Instead, the author predicts that
Napoleon is bent on restoring slavery. The author suggests that, at the
outset, Napoleon should have little trouble subduing the rebels.
However, once the former-slaves become aware of French intent to
reinstate slavery, this author predicts that the mass of blacks will
rise up again, placing in jeopardy the French invasion.
Toussad, Louis de. Justification of
Lewis Tousad Addressed to the National Convention of France.
Philadelphia: Daniel Humphrirs, 1793.
This is a rather pathetic plea from a man who led French forces during
the slave rebellion written from prison, professing his innocence to
charges that he conspired with the black insurgents against the citizens
of St. Domingue. Although the events which gave rise to Mr. Tousad's
imprisonment are not entirely clear, this report was interesting because
it reveals just how many factions were in conflict during the Haitian
Tyson, George F., ed. Toussaint
Louverture. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1973.
This book is an excellent source of commentary on Toussaint Louverture,
the Haitian Revolution, and its aftermath, told largely through the
first person accounts of people who lived during this period in history.
It gave me a good perspective on the fact that Toussaint was a highly
controversial figure, feared by some people and very much loved by
Barry, James P. The Louisiana Purchase.
New York: Franklin Watts, Inc., 1973.
This book is a good general source of information on the history of the
Louisiana Purchase. I used it as an overview and also as a springboard
to further research.
Beard, John R. The Life of Toussaint
L'Ouverture, The Negro Patriot of Hayti. London: Ingram, Cooke, and
This book is essentially a biography of Toussaint L'Ouverture. It is one
of many biographies written in the mid-1800s that portrays Toussaint in
glowing terms to have been a patriot and hero.
Blumberg, Rhoda. What's the Deal?
Jefferson, Napoleon and the Louisiana Purchase. Washington, D.C.:
National Geographic Society, 1998.
This rather short book provides an informative overview of the events
leading up to the Louisiana Purchase from the perspective of both the
Americans and the French. Of particular interest were the quotations
from George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams concerning
Toussaint Louverture. From the beginning, Americans both admired
Toussaint and feared the impact the Haitian slave revolt might have on
Bryan, Patrick E. The Haitian
Revolution and After. University of Minnesota Thesis, 1983.
This college thesis provides a good overview of life in Haiti before the
Haitian Revolution, including a good discussion of the complicated
social structure existing in the colony prior to the Revolution.
Clarke, John Henrik. African People in
World History. Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1993.
This is a fascinating little book that focuses on the history of
Africans in the Americas and in the Caribbean Islands in the contest of
the entire African past. The book covers a lot of territory in very few
pages. For purposes of my paper, the most relevant section of the book
was its discussion of the Atlantic slave trade. With respect to the
plantation system in both the Caribbean and the United States, Clarke
explains that it was a "natural incubator for slave revolts." Slaves
were brought in large numbers and generally kept together. The slave
owners thought that by keeping groups of slaves together the Africans
"would communicate with each other and more could be accomplished."
Clarke notes, however, that this communication also served to facilitate
slave revolts. Another interesting discussion in this book is the
discussion of the American colonization movement or the back-to-Africa
movement, This movement, spearheaded by the American Colonization
Society, and strongly influenced by events in Haiti, sought to return
free blacks to Africa as a means of eliminating the threat of
insurrection which the large number of free blacks was believed to pose
to whites in the United States.
Davis, David Brion. The Slave Power
Conspiracy and the Paranoid Style. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
University Press, 1969.
This author theorizes that American politics in general is marked by
many examples of situations in which conflicts are made worse by the
projection of conspiracy theories onto opponents. The belief in a
conspiracy--which often does not exist at all--has been responsible for
creating tensions greater than are warranted by the reality. With
respect to the events leading up to the Civil War, this author suggests
that both southerners and northerners were prone to paranoia.
Southerners inherited the paranoia of French conservatives who
attributed the St. Domingue slave revolt to the "undercover agents and
inflammatory propaganda of the Amis des Noirs, who were seen in France
as saboteurs employed by Britain, much as British abolitionists were
charged with being the tools of French Jacobinism. The myth that
abolitionists were directly responsible for the bloodbath of Santo
Domingo became an entrenched part of master class ideology, in Latin
America as well as the United States." In turn, northerners viewed
southern slave owners through a paranoid lens, fearing that this
relative minority intended to take over the federal government.
According to the author, the paranoia among northerners meant that even
those who were not particularly sympathetic to the plight of the slaves
nonetheless supported emancipation as a means of defeating the perceived
threat from the slave owners.
DeConde, Alexander. This Affair of
Louisiana. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1976.
As its name suggests, this book provided me with an informative
background on the dealings that led to the sale of the Louisiana
territory to the United States.
DeVoto, Bernard. The Course of Empire.
. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998.
This book contains an excellent, concise summary of the driving forces
behind the Haitian Revolution and the French invasion of Haiti. The book
also sets forth the conflicting views of the United States about Haiti.
On the one hand, Americans--particularly the Abolitionists--focused on
Toussaint Louverture as a hero in that he had led the successful Haitian
Revolution, Americans also wanted to maintain Haiti as a trading
partner, and therefore sought to had an interest in maintaining good
relations with the new nation. At the same time, however, as the author
explains, from the beginning, American leaders including Washington,
Jefferson, and Adams feared the spread of slave unrest to this country
The book also contains an interesting discussion of the considerations
that went into Napoleon's decision to sell Louisiana. Among the most
interesting facts noted in this book is Napoleon's prediction of the
consequences of the sale for France. Barbe-Marbois, the minister of
finance who conducted the negotiations for France, quotes Napoleon as
having said: "This accession of territory consolidates the power of the
United States forever, and I have given England a maritime rival who
sooner or later will humble her pride." As DeVoto notes, "The unifier of
Europe and the remaker of the world, who had also ended forever the
dream of a North American France, was here looking down a long arc of
time with great clarity."
Ferrell, Robert and Richard Natkiel.
Atlas of American History. Greenwich: Brompton Books, 1993.
This book is an atlas which covers many of the major events in U.S.
history. For my purposes, however, the book was primarily useful for its
discussion of the process of expansion begun by the Louisiana Purchase
and the discussion of the events leading up to the Civil War and how
those events were affected by expansion. This book makes a good argument
that not only did expansion further polarize the North and South over
the issue of slavery, but that the expansion begun with Louisiana also
resulted in a linking of the agriculture of the Middle West with the
industrialism of the Northeast, ultimately accentuating the regionalism
that lay at the heart of the Civil War. With respect to the Civil War,
this book says categorically that, although historians in the past have
pointed "variously to a difference in economic systems, disagreement on
constitutional law, or a failure of leadership in both [North and
South]" to explain the Civil War, "these theories ignored the root cause
of it all: slavery." And the Louisiana expansion did much to heighten
tensions over slavery.
Fick, Carolyn E. The Making of Haiti:
The Saint Domingue Revolution from Below. Knoxville: The University
of Tennessee Press, 1990.
This book is a very interesting account of the Haitian Revolution. It is
unlike the other books I read in its major thesis. This author argues
that it was not Toussaint or any of the leaders of the Revolution who
were the dominant figures in the revolt; rather it was the uneducated
slaves who were the principal architects of their own freedom. This book
devotes particular attention to the role played by the fugitive slaves
(called maroons) in orchestrating the fight for independence.
Geracimos, Ann. "A Mystery in Miniature,"
Smithsonian Magazine. Washington, D.C.: January, 2000, Vol. 30:
This article, although brief, was very helpful in explaining U.S.
reaction to the Haitian Revolution at the time it occurred. The author
points out that President Adams, who was from the North, wanted to
increase trade with Haiti and, therefore, thought it was important for
the Revolution to succeed. By contrast, Thomas Jefferson took a
different view. Reflecting his southern roots, he was concerned that if
the Haitian rebellion succeeded, there was a good chance that it might
spread to the U.S.
Hunt, Alfred W. Haiti's Influence on
Antebellum America. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press,
This book was easily the best book I read concerning the impact of the
Haitian Revolution on the United States. Not only is the book clear and
well-written, but is also provides a host of primary source material
reflecting the views of people living in the South in the pre-Civil War
era which reflects just how deeply the Haitian Revolution and the fears
it spawned impacted the attitude of the South toward slavery. It was
this book that first made clear to me just how great an impact the
Haitian Revolution had in creating the sharp polarity between North and
South over the issue of slavery, which contributed to the Civil War.
Although I used this book principally as a source for connecting the
Haitian Revolution with the American Civil War, the scope of the impact
of the Haitian Revolution on this country was far broader than its
contribution to the American Civil War. Hunt shows in this book just how
profoundly Haitian emigrants affected America, particularly Louisiana,
where Haitian influence is seen in everything from language to politics,
religion, culture, architecture, and cuisine.
James, C.L.R. The Black Jacobins:
Toussaint Louverture and the San Domingo Revolution.  3d ed.
London: Allison & Busby, 1980.
This book is a passionate, perhaps less-than-objective look at the
Haitian Revolution by an author who clearly views Toussaint as a hero.
Despite the clear philosophical bias of the book, it is a useful (and
often cited by other historians) discussion of the slave revolt. The
book does an excellent job of discussing the plight of the black slaves
in Haiti and explaining the emotional underpinnings of the Revolution.
Johnson, Paul. A History of the
American People. New York: Harper Perennial, 1998.
This book contains an excellent analysis of the Louisiana Purchase, its
history and its consequences for the United States. The author asserts
that the "most important inducement to immigration of 1800s was cheap
land.... In the entire history of the United States, the land purchase
system was the single most benevolent act of government." Although the
policy by which the government sold land to settlers for $2 an acre
pre-dated the Louisiana Purchase, the acquisition of that vast territory
greatly expanded the program. According to this source, the occupation
of the Mississippi Valley involving an area the size of western Europe,
"marked the point at which the United States ceased to be a small
struggling ex-colony and turned itself into a major nation."
This book is also an excellent source for
the background of the Civil War, including the pressures created by the
rapid expansion of cotton plantations into the new territory encompassed
within the Louisiana Purchase. According to the author, it was the huge
growth of the cotton industry, fostered by European demand for cotton
and made possible by Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin, that
created "the South" as a "special phenomenon, a culture, a cast of
mind...." In the Deep South, carved out of the Louisiana territory,
cotton was king and plantation owners were deeply indebted to slavery.
"With so much money invested in slavery it was not surprising that the
South ceased to apologize for slavery and began to defend it." This
defense of slavery increased the rift with the North that would lead to
the Civil War.
Knight, Franklin W. "AHR Forum--The Haitian Revolution." Amer. Hist.
Rev. Vol. 105, No. 1 (February 2000): 109-115.
This very recent article is directly on point for my paper because it
discusses the importance of the Haitian Revolution in history. This
article does a great job of underscoring the interrelationship of events
in other parts of the world and the Haitian Revolution. This author also
describes how the Haitian Revolution impacted the world in ways that
went beyond the United States (and, thus, beyond the scope of this
Knight, Franklin W. The African
Dimension in Latin American Societies. New York: Macmillan
Publishing Co., Inc., 1974.
This short book provides a good overview of the slave trade and its
effect on the entire New World (including the United States). I found
particularly interesting the author's discussion of how the practice of
slavery varied from country to country and how various circumstances and
institutions impacted the conditions to which the slaves were subjected.
For example, the author notes that in some parts of the Caribbean during
the time preceding the Haitian Revolution--although not in Haiti
itself--"the Church spoke out not against slavery but in favor of
amelioration of the conditions of slave labor." The author notes,
however, that the Church "at no time opposed slavery. It actively
supported the status quo, it owned slaves, and it vigorously
participated in the slave economy. The Jesuits gained a reputation for
benevolence and humanitarianism toward their African slaves, yet even
they did not oppose the institution of slavery at any time." In the
colony of Haiti, the Church turned a deaf ear toward the cries of the
Lacy, Dan. The Abolitionists. St.
Louis: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1978
This book, which is about the history of the Abolitionist movement in
the United States, has a good discussion of why the Northern
Abolitionists were so angered by the introduction of slaves into the new
Purchase 1803," http://galenet.gale.com/a/acp/netacg...&u=/a/acp/db/dtou/
index.html&r=1&f=g. Online. World Wide Web. 2/2/00.
Although short, this article provided me with a concise summary of why
Napoleon wanted Louisiana and why he ended up selling it. It also
identified three consequences of the Louisiana Purchase of which I was
Lyon, Wilson E. Louisiana in French
Diplomacy. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1974.
This book contains an excellent discussion of why Napoleon wanted
Louisiana, and why it was so important for the United States to own it.
Also, the book contains a good discussion of the consequences for the
United States of the acquisition of the Louisiana territory.
McPherson, James M. The Struggle for
Equality: Abolitionists and the Negro in the Civil War and
Reconstruction. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1964.
The author of this book is a noted scholar on the American Civil War.
This book focuses, as the title indicates, on the struggle of the Negro
for equality both during and after the Civil War. While the primary
focus of the book is on events that are beyond the scope of my paper,
this book has an excellent discussion of how Abolitionists countered the
argument that blacks were innately inferior to whites by reference to
the Haitian Revolution and Toussaint L'Ouverture. McPherson notes that
the advocates of racial equality, looking for "authentic black heroes"
focused on Toussaint who was "[b]y all odds, the greatest of these."
Wendell Phillips, one of the leading abolitionists, gave as one of his
"most powerful and compelling lectures" a biography of Toussaint as a
means of dramatizing the fitness of blacks for freedom. In an excerpt
from that speech, Phillips argued that "Hayti, from the ruins of her
colonial dependence, is become a civilized state, the seventh nation in
the catalogue of commerce with this country, inferior in morals and
education to none of the West Indian isles. Toussaint made her what she
is. Courage, purpose, endurance--they are the tests."
Meinig, D.W. Continental America,
1800-1867. Hampton: Vail-Ballou Press, 1993, Vol. 2.
Although this book covers a large period of time in American history, it
was a very good source because it has an extensive section on the
importance of Louisiana to the United States and, also, a small section
on how the rebellion of the slaves in Haiti forced U.S. slaveowners to
be even harsher to its own slaves out of fear that what happened in
Haiti would be repeated in the United States.
Merk, Frederick. History of the
Westward Movement. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978.
As its name suggests, this book is a comprehensive history of the
westward movements in the United States and its impact on the course of
history. This book provided support for a number of my theses about the
importance of the Louisiana territory as a turning point in American
history. Specifically, it both confirms the importance of the Louisiana
territory in shaping the country, by opening vistas to the west and
encouraging immigration, for example. It also, however, underscores the
fact that the expansion started by Louisiana intensified sectional
problems, including that of the spread of slavery which led to the Civil
Merk, Frederick. Manifest Destiny and
Mission in American History: A Reinterpretation. New York: Alfred A.
This book is a study of public opinion regarding expansionist drives in
the United States in the nineteenth century. The book explores the push
for expansion that began with the Louisiana Purchase and grew into the
cry of manifest destiny. This book, which is an in-depth look at all the
forces shaping manifest destiny, went far beyond the scope of my paper.
However, it was useful in underscoring for me just how important the
idea of expansion has been historically in the development of the
Rogozinski, Jan. A Brief History of
the Caribbean. New York: The Penguin Group, 1992.
This book is a concise, well written history of the entire Caribbean
region. It was helpful to me because it placed the Haitian Revolution in
the context of a much larger history. It does a particularly good job of
describing the life of a Haitian slave, noting, for example, that the
nature of sugar cane as a crop made the work of a slave on the sugar
plantations more back-breaking than was true of the work of slaves on,
for example, cotton plantations..
Scott, Juliua Sherrard, III. The
Common Wind: Currents of Afro-American Communication in the Era of the
Haitian Revolution. PhD Diss. Duke University, 1986. Durham:
University Press, 1986.
This PhD disssertation was called to my attention by one of the judges
of my paper at the regional level. It is a tremendous source of
information on my topic. This dissertation discusses how the ideas
underlying the Haitian Revolution were connected to the French
Revolution and how they were subsequently communicated to many parts of
the world, including the United States. The dissertation contains an
excellent discussion of the origins of the Haitian Revolution. For
purposes of my paper, however, the dissertation was probably most
helpful in the support it provided for my thesis--that events in Haiti
were communicated to the United States where they greatly impacted the
course of our history. The author explains how the communication
occurred, noting, for example, that U.S. vessels involved in trade were
a prime source of communication. The author also discusses how important
Haiti became to Afro Americans in this country as a battle cry of
freedom. The author notes that nineteenth century Afro-North American
historians like ex-slave William Wells Brown characterized the Haitian
Revolution as "the pivotal event in the history of Afro-Americans." The
author of this dissertation argues that "[u]p to the present day,
Toussaint and the Haitian Revolution continue to occupy a central place
in the cultural memory of blacks in North America."
Wexler, Alan. Atlas of Western
Expansion. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1995.
As this book's name suggests, it is a very good source of information on
how the Louisiana Purchase started a series of expansions, in the
process setting a precedent on how the United States would acquire
territory in the future.
Zinn, Howard. A People's History of
the United States 1492-Present. New York: Harper Perennial, 1995.
This book is a broad history of the United States. For my purposes, it
was interesting for two reasons. It contains a good description of a sad
chapter in America's history which is integrally bound up in U.S.
expansion--the adoption of a policy of "Indian Removal." The Louisiana
territory provided a way for the young U.S. to deal with its "Indian
problem" without having to go to war. Jefferson, in fact, proposed to
Congress after the acquisition of Louisiana that Indians should be
encouraged to settle down on small tracts and do farming within the new
territory. The reason for the Indian Removal policy and its impact can
be seen, in part, through statistics. In 1790, there were 3,900,000
Americans, most of them living within 50 miles of the Atlantic Ocean. By
1830, there were 13 million Americans and by 1840, 4,500,000 of them had
crossed into the Mississippi Valley. To make room for white settlers,
the Indians had to be moved. In 1820, 120,000 Indians lived east of the
Mississippi River. However, by 1844, all but 30,000 had been forced to
migrate west. The Louisiana territory made this forced migration
possible and, in the process, spared the U.S. a potentially costly
1 C.L.R. James, The Black
Jacobins: Toussaint Louverture and the San Domingo Revolution ]1928]
3d ed. (London: Allison & Busby, 1980), vii.
2 Patrick E. Bryan, The
Haitian Revolution and After (University of Minnesota Thesis, 1983)
6; see also James, vii (claiming that St. Domingue was responsible for
an even higher percent--two-thirds--of France's overseas trade).
3 See generally Carolyn Fick,
The Making of Haiti: The Saint Domingue Revolution from Below
(Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1990), 15-17 (discussing
the economic structure of St. Domingue and the caste society of the
colony in the pre-Revolution days).
4 George F. Tyson, ed.,
Toussaint Louverture Great Lives Observed Series (Englewood Cliffs:
Prentice Hall, Inc., 1971) 6.
5 Ibid; Franklin W. Knight,
The African Dimension in Latin American Societies (New York:
Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1974) 64.
6 Ibid; Bryan, 19 (noting that,
in 1767, on the larger plantations, there were on average only three
whites to every three or four hundred Africans. On smaller plantations,
the ratio was even more disadvantageous for the whites--one or two
whites to three hundred or four hundred blacks).
7 Tyson, 6; Jan Rogozinski, A
Brief History of the Caribbean (New York: The Penguin Group, 1992)
8 Ibid; see also James, 5-6
(describing cruelty to which slaves were subjected).
9 Rogozinski, 164-65; Julius
Scott III, The Common Wind: Currents of Afro American Communication
in the Era of the Haitian Revolution PhD dissertation. (Durham: Duke
University, 1986) 1.
10 Tyson, 10.
12 Knight, 42.
13 See Bernard DeVoto, The
Course of Empire  (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998)
14 Fick, 206.
15 DeVoto, 388.
16 Fick, 313.
17 DeVoto, 589.
18 Ibid. Shortly thereafter,
Leclerc himself died of yellow fever.
19 Rogozinski, 172.
20 Blumberg, 116.
21 James P. Barry, The
Louisiana Purchase (New York: Franklin Watts, Inc., 1973) 80
(quoting noted American historian Henry Adams).
22 Blumberg, 77.
23 Ibid, 32.
24 Paul Johnson, A History
of the American People (New York: Harper Perennial, 1998) 290
(calling successful settlement of the Mississippi Valley "one of the
decisive events in history. By means of it, America became truly
dynamic, emerging from the eastern seaboard...into the great river
25 The vast Louisiana territory
also enabled the young United States to avoid a potentially disastrous
military confrontation over the removal of Indians from land coveted by
white settlers by providing a territory into which the Indians could be
"relocated" as settlers moved into the Mississippi Valley. See Howard
Zinn, A People's History of the United States 1492 - Present (New
York: Harper Perennial, 1995) 124-25.
26 Barry, 81.
28 Johnson, 317-19.
29 Robert Ferrell and Richard
Natkiel, Atlas of American History (Greenwich: Brompton Books,
1993) 47; Johnson, 310.
30 Ferrell, 44 (the process of
expansion begun by the Louisiana Purchase led directly to the American
Civil War. "This war came from rapid expansion and the creation of new
states."); D. W. Meinig, The Shaping of America, A Geographical
Perspective of 500 Years of History, Continental America, 1800-1867
Vol. 2 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993) 457 (discussing Bleeding
Kansas and events leading up to it).
31 Alfred W. Hunt, Haiti's
Influence on Antebellum America. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
University Press, 1988) 190. See also Herbert Aptheker, American
Negro Slave Revolts  5th ed. (New York: International
Publishers, 1987) 368 ("There are few phases of ante-bellum Southern
life and history that were not in some way influenced by the fear of, or
the actual outbreak of, militant concerted slave action.").
32 Althia de Puech Parham, ed.,
My Odyssey, Experiences of a Young Refugee from Two Revolutions By a
Creole of Saint Domingue (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University
Press, 1959) 28.
33 Martin Rus, Night of
Fire: The Black Napoleon and the Battle for Haiti (New York:
Sarpedon Publishers, Inc., 1994) 5-6. See also A Particular Account
of the Commencement and Progress of the Insurrection of the Negroes in
St. Domingo (London: J. Sewell, 1792) 5-9 (describing brutal
slaughter of whites).
34 Hunt, 115.
35 Thomas O. Ott, The
Haitian Revolution (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1973)
36 Ott, 196. See also Zinn, 169
(noting that the Vesey trial record itself "was ordered destroyed soon
after publication, as too dangerous for slaves to see."); Hunt, 181
(noting that John Brown's raid on the arsenal at Harper's Ferry may also
have been inspired, at least in part, by the Haitian Revolt. Brown, who
had hoped that his raid would ignite a general slave uprising, admitted
at his trial to having read widely about Toussaint Louverture).
37 See generally Ott, 196;
38 Meining, 22; see also
39 Ott, 195.
40 Aptheker, 373.
Reprinted form the
comments and letters to