Short Suck #51: Greatest Slave Rebellion in History: The Haitian Revolution

Hello, and welcome to another edition of Time Sucks, Short Sucks. I'm Dan Cummins, and today I'll be sharing the incredible, inspiring story of the Haitian Revolution, which happens to be the only truly successful, large-scale slave revolt in the history of the entire damn world that led to a free nation, and the largest slave uprising since Spartacus, unsuccessful revolt against the Roman Republic nearly 1,900 years earlier. And it's a damn shame that most of us never learned about it in a high school history class. For over a dozen years, hundreds of thousands of former slaves throughout Haiti fought and died to secure their freedom and establish their own nation, battling against the armies of Napoleon, Spain, even the British Empire in the process. More British soldiers would die in the Haitian Revolution than died in the American Revolution. And just like with the American Revolutionary War, the Haitians won. Words and ideas can change the world. I hated her, but I wanted to love my mother. I have a dream. I'll plead not guilty right now. Your only chance is to leave with us. All right, let's get to history-ing. So many French words incoming. May God have mercy on my soul. I'm gonna do my best. But a great story. By 1791, the year that the Haitian Revolution began, the colony called Saint-Domingue at the time was one of the most profitable stretches of land to ever exist. The French had taken the western third of the island of Hispaniola from the Spanish Empire in the late 1600s and in about a hundred years turned it into a cash machine that turned, essentially, kidnapped Africans into coffee and sugar money. Might sound like a pretty fucked up way of describing it, but Saint-Domingue was a pretty fucked up place. By the 1780s, the colony, which was only about half the size of Denmark, produced about 60% of all the coffee and 40% of all the sugar imported to all of Europe. It was by far the most profitable colony in the New World. Saint-Domingue's massive profits were a fairly recent development, and the rise in profits went hand in hand with an insane increase in the number of enslaved Africans arriving on the island. When the French originally took the colony from the Spanish, it only had about 5,000 slaves. But throughout the 1700s, the number of slaves being brought over increased massively. By the 1760s and 1770s, around 10,000 to 15,000 slaves were being brought over each year. Damn, just dozens and dozens per day. And by 1787, the number had jumped up to over 40,000, over 100 a day. By 1789, two years before the revolution, there were approximately 500,000 total slaves in the colony, and two-thirds of those slaves had been born in Africa. In comparison, the white population in Saint-Domingue, only about 30,000. Those greedy motherfuckers didn't think that math through very well when it came to what a rebellion could look like, did they? While the white colonists were always trying to increase the size of their plantations, another reason that the slave population in the colony had so many new arrivals was that the living conditions for slaves on the island were abysmal so horrible they were dying faster than new slaves could be born and slave laborers were never given enough food to survive on for long and disease was a constant threat besides this they were always at risk of being just fucking murdered willy-nilly by their white owners for you know the slightest mistake or just because some random asshole felt like killing somebody that day it was hell on earth in his impeccably researched work on the haitian revolution the primary source uh we relied on today the black jacobins author clr james gives a terrifying description of some of the torture that the slaves in san domaine received shit that feels like it should be in a serial killer episode here this following quote is unreal their masters poured burning wax on their arms and hands and shoulders emptied the boiling cane sugar over their heads, burned them alive, roasted them on slow fires, filled them with gunpowder and blew them up with a match, buried them up to the neck and smeared their heads with sugar that the flies might devour them, fastened them near the nests of ants or wasps, made them eat their excrement, drink their urine and lick the saliva of other slaves. Doesn't get more evil than that. I don't think he does. I think that's max fucking evil. Imagine that happening to you or worse, imagine being forced to watch that happen to your child or your spouse or your parents, because that for sure happened. And that is exactly why we should never, uh, other, you know, anyone, not members of a different race, not members of a different gender, not members of a different political ideology or citizen status. You start to see some other group is less human than you. Uh, you're on your fucking way to being able to do that kind of evil shit to people. James also makes it clear that these horrible acts weren't only done by the occasional sadistic slave owner. Instead, many of them were fucking common throughout the island and had well-recognized names and techniques attached to them, like they were just passing around fucking recipes. Saint-Domingue was at least in the running for being the most brutal place in the world at the time. And taking that into consideration, the extreme violence of the revolution that follows all that treatment doesn't seem savage, it feels fair. Righteous vengeance. Besides these two groups, the white slave owners and the black slaves, there were also 20,000 to 30,000 affranchis, the title given to free mixed-race people and former slaves who had purchased their freedom. While many of the people in this class were actually able to become quite wealthy, the importance of the racial divide in Saint-Domingue meant that the richest affranchis were still in a social class viewed as far beneath that of the poorest white person. And unsurprisingly, this fact was very important to the poor white population, a group that would again and again be the strongest opponents of any attempt to give more rights to the colony's mixed race and or African populations. In his book, James gives an example of just how insane the racial divide could make daily life in Saint-Domingue. He wrote, no small white was a servant. No white man did any work that he could get a Negro to do for him. A barber, summoned to attend to a customer, appeared in silk attire, hat under his arm, sword at his side, cane under his elbow, followed by four Negroes. One of them combed the hair, another dressed it, a third curled it, and the fourth finished. While they worked, the employer presided over the various operations. at the slightest slackness at the slightest mistake he boxed the cheek of the unfortunate slave so hard that he often knocked him over that's insane that's the most ridiculous convoluted way to get a haircut i've ever heard of in my fucking life was that fun for the person getting the haircut to have four scared dudes working on them who occasionally got punched in the face by their haircutting supervisor what kind of monster preferred that to just like having the white guy cut their hair and why four guys who the fuck came up with that clearly those dudes loved having slaves uh to feel superior to uh because that system sure as shit did not make uh getting a haircut actually easier yeah racial superiority meant everything to the so-called small whites the poor whites uh with it even the poorest white person on Saint-Domingue felt like a king even though the massive difference between the colonies free and slave populations was definitely cause for concern. By the late 1700s, it seemed like the profits coming out of Saint-Domingue would never stop. And who knows how long the profits would have continued to flow in the banks of the slave owners and people back in Europe, if not for a new development back in Europe, the French Revolution. As France's pre-revolutionary legislative body, the Estates General, prepared to meet in 1788, representatives back in France prepared long lists of grievances against the monarchy, known as Calleys. Many of the plantation owners in Saint-Domingue were nervous about sending representatives of their own to this meeting since they wanted as little attention as possible from the anti-slavery representatives that would also be present. However, they also didn't want to state this publicly, so when some of the merchants and lawyers from Le Cap, a northern port and also the biggest city in the colony, decided to send representatives along with their own list of grievances, the plantation owners stayed silent and did nothing to stop them. So in June of 1789, when King Louis XVI tried to end the meeting of the estates general without giving the French people anything that they'd asked for, and the representatives stormed out to a tennis court where they famously took an oath to continue to represent the French people no matter what the monarchy tried to do, the colonists were right there with them. Caught up in the excitement and hoping to benefit from the change in governance, the Saint-Domingue colonists attempted to claim 18 seats in the new legislature, a number which they based on their total population, slaves included. This push for power, not well received by the other people present. The early leader of the French Revolution, the Count of Mirabeau, was an abolitionist, not a fan of slavery, and he smacked down the opportunist slaveholders. He told them, You claim representation proportionate to the number of the inhabitants. The free blacks are proprietors and taxpayers, and yet they have not been allowed to vote. And as for the slaves, either they are men or they are not. If the colonists consider them to be men, let them free them and make them electors and eligible for seats. If the contrary is the case, have we, in apportioning deputies according to the population of France, taken into consideration the number of our horses and our mules? The ideals of liberty and equality that powered the whole French Revolution didn't exactly shore up with the wants of slave owners on an island where over 90% of the population had no more rights than farm animals, maybe even had less rights than farm animals. So the colonists would only get six seats in the new government, and those seats would come at the cost of a lot of unwanted attention directed at the practice of slavery back in Saint-Domingue. However, for the time being, this added attention wouldn't actually result in any real change in the enslaved population situation. Things did start getting pretty complicated back in Saint-Domingue, though. The reason for this was that basically the poor whites in the colony conveniently saw themselves as the least privileged group in Saint-Domingue and thought the revolution was their opportunity to take some power away from the rich white plantation owners and the French government officials. unsurprisingly the poor whites also absolutely hated the rich mixed race people in the colony unable to accept that somebody in the non-white population could ever have more power than them right same old stupid shit a group of poor people not willing to cross racial lines to align themselves with other poor people to just make life better for them nope uh they just wanted to enrich themselves and no one else file that under the dumb shit people just will not stop doing, one of the biggest folders in the history of humanity file cabinet. The rich white plantation owners, meanwhile, had profited a ton from the old system, the current system, and were unsurprisingly firmly against the French Revolution. The rich whites, along with the French government officials, started to get nervous that the poor whites, those small whites, would rise up against them. So they did look to their only possible other ally against this threat, which was the rich mixed race population. While that would have been unthinkable just a few years earlier, they started making friendly advances towards this group, even though they still did not offer them any concrete benefits, right? Of course not. They wanted to see if they could get a lot of help from them in exchange for fucking jack shit in return. As 1789 became 1790, and the French government continued to make very slow progress on giving the mixed race population any rights at all, and some of them began to get a little antsy. Even though the rich white population was acting friendly, both sides knew it was only because the rich whites needed the support of the rich mixed-race population and had no plans to give them anything substantial once the potential poor white, the small white rebellion, was squashed. And then one mixed-race man, a talented and popular politician from Paris named Vincent Oge, purchased weapons and supplies from the United States and landed in Saint-Domingue on October 21st, 1790, with plans for a rebellion. Ah, shit. Kind of. Oge made it very clear that he had no plans to try and free the slaves. He was only requesting better rights for the mixed race population. However, he gravely underestimated the brutality of Saint-Domingue society after he failed to take the city of Le Cap with his force of a few hundred men. he was captured and then executed in horrific fashion. He was forced to beg forgiveness in front of the main church in the city before he was then led to the parade ground, tied to a scaffold where his legs, arms, right at the elbows, broken one by one by one, then screaming in agony. He was tied to a wheel. His face turned up towards the sky and beheaded. News of Oge's death came as a big shock to the revolutionary leaders across the Atlantic back in France. The terrifying death suffered by this man, a man whom they had known and worked with, put the evil nature of their colony society into much better perspective for them. And on May 15th, 1791, voting rights were now given to any person of color in Saint-Domingue whose parents had both been free. This still didn't mean the entire mixed race population, still didn't mean full political rights, but it was an important first step. While all of this is going on, there have also been 500,000 people on the island that we haven't been focusing on too much and on august 21st 1791 some sources say august 22nd the slaves of san domaine watching all the revolution counter-revolution general confusion to confusion taking place in the colony like talk of all these stuff of what's going on in france they decide it's finally the right time to take advantage of all this chaos and in the weeks leading up to their uprising slaves on the northern plains of the colony had been meeting regularly and they settled on a plan to set fire to the plantations before joining with some urban slaves in Le Cap in order to take over the city. In other times, as much interaction between slaves from different colonies might have been picked up on, but the white population was preoccupied with their own power struggles, you know, with news from France, even when some slaves taking part were arrested and taken to Le Cap the night before the start of the rebellion and the governor or the colony figured out that some sort of uprising might take place, he only ordered a few extra patrols in the city and did absolutely nothing to warn the plantation owners. And holy fuck would he come to regret that. The meeting to kick shit off, really kick shit off, was like something out of a movie. In a thick forest known as Bois Cayman or Alligator Wood badass name near one of the northern plantations A bunch of enslaved representatives from plantations all across northern Saint met up while a violent storm raged above them under the pretense of a voodoo ceremony. Or maybe their meeting actually did start off as a voodoo ceremony. In the movie that needs to be made about all of this, definitely got to have some badass voodoo. According to some accounts, the lightning and the thunder of the storm on that August night were interpreted as auspicious omens. And the signal to begin the revolt was given to thousands of slaves who had come by Duddy Bookman, a high priest of voodoo and secretly a leader of many of the slaves. And now those thousands of slaves returned to their slave masters under the cover of darkness with orders to rise up and kill their masters. And a vengeful slaughter began. Within days, half of the island's northern plain was on fire. While the governor's added patrols had prevented the slaves from taking the city of Le Cap, the countryside was all theirs. They massacred an untold number of white plantation owners, often killing their families as well, families who had never lifted a finger to defend them and their kids from countless unholy atrocities, and they burned everything around them, right? Viva la revolution! The white soldiers in Le Cap heard about the carnage. They were fucking terrified despite being better armed and trained. They were frozen with shock. They couldn't comprehend that the slaves could have organized such a massive revolt. How is this happening? And now, of course, they worry that they're next. After a few weeks, there is almost nothing left to burn on the plains. And the slaves now retreat into the forest to organize themselves for additional attacks. By this time, there were around 100,000 enslaved people participating. Holy shit. between 30,000 and 40,000 white people lived on the island. Uh-oh. The city of Le Cap had around 15,000 people living in it at this time, and two-thirds of those people were enslaved. So only about 5,000 whites there. So the white slave owners, you know, their blood pressure had just shot up considerably. Their sphincters have gotten real puckered. Meanwhile, as the slaves kept revolting in the north, the poor whites in the south and west became increasingly violent towards the mixed-race population, especially after the uprising and after the news that they had gained voting rights. In response, the mixed race population led by two soldiers named André Rigaud and Louis-Jacques Beauvais, who had both served with the French in the American War of Independence, decided to fight back. And they set up a camp outside the capital of Port-au-Prince at a place called La Croix-de-Bouquet. As the poor whites in the capital got more and more restless and threatened to revolt against the French government officials. The officials and rich whites joined Rigaud and Bouvet's forces outside the city, forming an anti-revolutionary alliance in support of the royal French government. The combined forces planned to take back the capital from the poor whites, who were calling themselves patriots since they saw themselves as defenders of the revolution. In need of more numbers, Rigaud and Bouvet, they sent a 21-year-old black soldier named Hyacinth to the neighboring plantations in order to convince the slaves to fight against the patriots in the capital. This resulted in a very odd combination of forces assembled in the camp, with rich white slave owners, mixed-race soldiers, and black slaves all fighting on the same side against the poor small whites. Rigaud and Bouvet would eventually attack the poor whites in the capital on March 31st, 1792, and as the battle for the capital raged, the fighting spirit of the formerly enslaved soldiers quickly revealed itself. A badass description of the battle by C.L.R. James, that author, shows how insanely brutal the fighting conditions became. Armed only with knives, picks, hose, and sticks with iron points, they went into battle. Led by Hyacinth, they charged the bayonets of the Port-au-Prince volunteers and the French soldiers without fear or care for the volleys from the cannons which tore their ranks. If they were killed, they would wake again in Africa. Hyacinth, a bull's tail in his hand, ran from rank to rank, crying that his talisman would chase death away. He charged at their head, passing unscathed through the bullets in the grapeshot. Under such leadership, the Africans were irresistible. They clutched at the horses of the dragoons, pulled off the riders. They put out the bullets and called to their comrades, Come, come, we have them. The cannons were discharged and blew them to pieces, but others swarmed over guns and gunners, threw their arms around them and silenced them. Nothing could stop their devotion. And after six hours, the troops of Port-au-Prince retired in disorder. Damn, if I'm reading that right, sounds like some of those guys threw their arms around cannons and sacrificed themselves so that others would live. That is such a bewildering, insane amount of valor. And now before we move on, time for this week's first to two mid-show sponsor breaks. If you don't want to hear these ads, please sign up to be a Space Lizard on Patreon. Get the catalog ad free. Get these episodes early and more. Thanks for listening to those ads. And now let's return to battle after battle after battle. While the mixed-race population was fighting against the patriots in Saint-Domingue, the revolutionary government back in France was slowly realizing that their counterparts in the colony, the poor small whites, claiming to fight in defense of the revolution, were maybe not giving them the best reputation. So recognizing the potential benefits that would come from flipping the mixed race population onto the side of the revolution, the French government would finally give them full political rights in April. This plan would succeed. And now Rigaud and Beauvais, now they side with the French Republic, splitting with their former allies, the royalist rich whites of Saint-Domingue. A lot of flip-flopping going on in this battle or this war. And now some other white people are fucking nervous again. While the rich white plantation owners were hoping to use the mixed race population as pawns to help them put down the poor whites without actually giving them any rights and then dealing with them later, they'd actually been tricked themselves. As Beauvais would later say to a revolutionary French official, quote, we were never the dupes of the white cockades. Word for the rich whites. We had to conquer our rights. We needed auxiliaries. If the devil had presented himself, we would have enrolled him. These gentlemen offered, and we used them, while allowing them to believe we were their dupes. Pretty badass quote. So Rigaud, Beauvais, and the mixed-race population of Saint-Domingue had now been successful in gaining their rights. But what about the slave rebellion in the north? Unfortunately, the mixed-race populations fighting for equality only applied to themselves. And they actually still highly valued their superiority over the enslaved population and did not want to help them. So rather than representing the first step towards liberty and equality for everyone on the island, the success of Rigaud and Beauvais actually meant that the whole colony would concentrate on putting down the slave revolt now. So many twists and turns. So many groups scheming to be viewed as superior to others. To make things even worse for the revolting slaves, 6,000 trained troops, battle-hardened troops, arrived from France on September 18, 1792 to put down the rebellion. These troops were led by the French general Etienne Laveau, alongside a new representative from the revolutionary government, a dude named Leger Felicité Saint-Thonax. It's got quite the name. Leger Felicité Saint-Thonax. There we go. Saint-Thonax. Santonax and Laveau, two white dudes, first put an end to the counter-revolutionary plans of the rich whites who were resisting the French government's declaration of equal rights for the mixed race population. Laveau would then spend the rest of 1792 fighting against the rebelling slaves, pushing them further and further into the mountains. By the end of the year, the former slaves were starving, without supplies, almost out of room to retreat. For a moment, it looked like this was going to end up being another failed slave rebellion. But some things have been happening back in Europe that would prevent this In late 1792, King Louis XVI had been caught trying to escape France And the revolutionaries finally decided it was time for that motherfucker to go Off with his head Guillotine time, homeboy Wouldn't it be nice to see some tyrannical leaders get the guillotine treatment today? Louis was executed January 21st, 1793 And France quickly ended up at war with Britain and Spain With both countries eager to snag the wealthy colony of Saint-Domingue from the French, Saint-Domingue and Laveau suddenly had other problems to deal with. Laveau was called back to defend the coast in early 1793, and the former slaves found a desperately needed ally in Spain now, who controlled the eastern side of the island. The rebels agreed to fight the French on behalf of the Spanish Empire and in return gain much-needed supplies and weapons and training. And before we get too much further, now is probably a good time to take a look at the men who were leading the slave revolt. The two most powerful rebel leaders were Georges Biasot and Jean-François Papillon. They had attended the fateful meeting at Bois-Quay-Mun, the big voodoo ceremony in the storm, and it had apparently been predicted that they would be important leaders in the uprising, which would come true. However, another man named Toussaint Louverture would go on to play an even more significant role in the Haitian Revolution than either Biasso or Papillon. Louverture was in his 40s by the time the revolution began, and while historians originally believed he'd spent his entire life in slavery, some researchers in the 1970s discovered he'd actually purchased his freedom sometime in the 1770s and managed a plantation himself and had slaves of his own for a few years beginning in 1779. However, one of the first things Toussaint did after becoming free was to purchase another enslaved man in order to grant him his freedom as well. Toussaint also had a wife and two kids that remained enslaved until the beginning of the revolution. And by that time, he'd actually gone back to working at the same plantation he had formerly been a slave at himself. Fucking complicated. His story sheds even more light On just how messed up Saint-Domingue was You know, it's society Even if you could gain your own freedom You know, even if you had your own slaves Your family could still be enslaved to somebody else And you could also end up working and living on a plantation As a free man Maybe the same plantation that you used to be enslaved on After leaving his plantation to join the revolution Just a few weeks after it began Louverture would soon prove That he was much more committed to ending slavery In the colony than Biasso or Papillon. But for the time being, all three were serving as officers in the Spanish army, officially in command of the former slaves they had been leading. Meanwhile, Saint-Donac's and the other revolutionary French leaders were facing an odd setback. A new governor named Galbo had been appointed to Saint-Domingue, arriving in Le Cap in May of 1793 while Saint-Donac's was away in Port-au-Prince. The rich whites lived in the city, many of them refugee plantation owners now who had fled the countryside after the slave revolt began hated Santonax and the revolutionary government and they tried to convince Galbo to seize power and kick the revolutionaries off the fucking island. Galbo who was actually a property owner on the island was easily convinced of this and by the time Santonax returned fighting broke out and now Santonax had to flee into the surrounding mountains. The rich whites would quickly regret fucking with this dude though. trying to keep the peace and lacking any orders from the government back in Europe, Saint-Onax had done nothing to free the slaves up to this point. But now he felt he had no other option. And after declaring that anyone who fought on behalf of the French Revolution would be given their freedom in the colony following the victory, he armed about 10,000 slaves who agreed to fight alongside him. And he ordered them to attack the city of Le Cap. Right now they have numbers and guns. Ah, shit. The few soldiers under Galbo's command, drunk and celebrating their recent victory, were completely unprepared for the attack. Saint-Onax's forces tore through their ranks, took control of the city so quickly that Galbo, fleeing, had to literally jump into the ocean, swim out to a retreating ship. Roughly 10,000 rich whites fled with him, many of them traveling to a place where they could still own slaves and run their plantations in peace, the United States. after this victory it was clear that Saint-Domingue society would never be the same in August Saint-Domain would declare the abolition of slavery across the entire island but that wasn't actually his call to make without an official declaration from the government back in France many of the former slaves were suspicious as fuck of this actually happening or lasting very long and now they joined the forces of Toussaint Louverture right just a lot of switching sides. They switched because Louverture, despite fighting for the Spanish, who were still strong supporters of slavery, actually, well, he had consistently promised freedom to any who joined him as well. And he was a former slave promising this, not some white dude new to the island. So, you know, other slaves trusted him more. Also trusted him because Louverture, unlike Biasso and Papillon, didn't just join the slave revolt for personal gain. Those two dudes had already gotten real friendly and cozied up with some rich whites who had fled to the Spanish side of the island. Even though the French were now the only others on the island promising abolition, Louverture did not trust Santonax. He was also enjoying the success he was having fighting for the Spanish. By early 1794, he had taken the city of Gonaive, a port on the western coast between Le Cap and Port-au-Prince, cutting the French forces in half. Louverture now commanded a force of 4,000 well-trained, well-supplied soldiers. The British, right? The British are still around. Seeing the Spanish success and the chaotic state of the French forces, they get more aggressive now as well. The Navy will attack Port-au-Prince from the sea. And on June 4th, 17, there's so many factions. There's so many people fucking fighting each other. On June 4th, 1794, they successfully captured the French capital. The end seemed near for the French forces. Saint-Lenax was clinging to Le Cap in the north, while Rigaud and Bouvet, who've been fighting for the French ever since they'd won equality for the mixed race population, held a few cities in the south. But even more changes back in Europe would again have a massive impact on what was going on and what will be Haiti. The revolutionary government in France was at its most progressive point. And on February 4th, 1794, they made Saint-Tonax's declaration official, abolishing slavery throughout all of the French colonies. They were taken till May for the news of this decision to reach Saint-Domingue, and it would come just in time to save the French forces there. Toussaint Louverture had finally been convinced to fight for the French. They were now the only ones promising to free the slaves, not the Spanish, not the British. And the success of the British and Spanish was actually making him nervous Both empires supported slavery and Louverture worried that if they took control of the island either one they would turn on him and many former slaves under his command Right Logical concern So he joined the French in June, and quickly recaptured the line of forts he had just taken leading from the coast up into the mountains, putting the French in a much better position to claim the island. Meanwhile, the other former rebel leaders, Biasso, Papillon, remained with the Spanish, even though they were now former slaves fighting to defend slavery. Weird headspace to be living in. Not long after this, Saint-Onax would be called back to France where he would actually now be put on trial because of some of his actions in Saint-Domingue. Some of the rich whites in the colony, they had powerful allies back in Europe and the government had received a lot of complaints from them since Saint-Onax's freeing of the enslaved population didn't exactly increase their profits or sit very well with them. So now it was up to Louverture and Laveau in the north and Rigaud and Beauvais in the south to defend the colony from both the British and the Spanish, two of the biggest fucking empires in the world. Right. The French being the third. These guys are enormous. All of them. Luckily, these guys were quick students of war and up to the task. And they won victory after victory after victory against the two massive empires throughout 1794 and 1795. By 1795, they'd done so well that the Spanish were forced to negotiate for peace, retreating back to the eastern half of the island. The French revolutionaries now only had the British forces left to deal with on the island's western half, and they were making good progress against them. But then some internal power struggles will soon get in their way. Before we talk about those struggles, time for today's second to two mid-show sponsor breaks. Thanks for listening to the sponsors. now let's check out some internal or see how some internal power struggles almost cost Haiti its fight for independence. Over the course of the war, the rich mixed race population in the colony had slowly gotten frustrated with the favor the French commander Laveau was showing towards Louverture and the formerly enslaved population. The mixed race population and Saint-Domingue looked down on the black enslaved population and felt like they were losing their privileged status to them. So in March of 1796, some powerful mixed-race elites in Le Cap had Laveau arrested and attempted a coup. Louverture, who had been off fighting against the British, raced back to Le Cap, preventing the city from being taken and rescuing Laveau. As a sign of appreciation for Louverture's heroism, Laveau officially promoted him to lieutenant governor, making him his second command. And even though he was technically subordinate to Laveau, Louverture was by far the most popular leader amongst the former slaves, making him really the most powerful man in Saint-Domingue now. Then in the summer of 1796, Saint-Denac returns from France with additional soldiers and supplies. His court shits done in order to continue pushing the British off the island. He'd won his trial. He cleared his name. He had demonstrated that freeing the slaves had been a necessary action, but the group of refugee former plantation owners and their allies in France, they were still powerful. In order to combat this, Louverture would convince Laveau to return to France shortly after Saint-Onax's return with the goal of politically advocating for the former slaves and preventing any attempt to bring back slavery to the colony, right? The shit just won't end. By 1797, the war against the British was continuing to go well, and Louverture in the north, along with Rigaud and Beauvais in the south, had pushed the remaining forces to Port-au-Prince and a few other coastal forts. But Louverture, still nervous about France, changing their mind about slavery. The revolution had gone backwards since 1794 when abolition was declared, and he began to worry that they were going to reinstate slavery. Saint-Domain, an honest revolutionary and one of the strongest white supporters of the former slaves, also concerned about this. And apparently even suggested to Louverture that Saint-Domain could maybe, I don't know, declare its independence and tell France to go fuck itself and just be its own nation. Louverture, however, not ready for that. Didn't want that yet. Although it would bring about his downfall, Louverture would remain loyal to France until the very end, hoping that he could convince his mother country that attempting to bring back slavery would be a massive mistake. He would force Santanax to return to France in August for some diplomacy. And then only a few months later, in November, Louverture would write a powerful warning to the French that they needed to listen to him. He wrote, it is to the solicitude of the French government that I have confided my children. I would tremble with horror if it was into the hands of the colonists that I had sent them as hostages. Do they think that men who have been able to enjoy the blessing of liberty will calmly see it snatched away? They supported their chains only so long as they did not know any condition of life more happy than that of slavery. But today, when they have left it, if they had a thousand lives, they would sacrifice them all rather than be forced into slavery again. France will not revoke her principles. But if to reestablish slavery in San Domingo, this was done, then I declare to you it will be to attempt the impossible. We have known how to face dangers to obtain our liberty. We shall know how to brave death to maintain it. Pretty badass. San Domingo, by the way, is the eastern Spanish side of the island, now the Dominican Republic. While Louverture waited to see who France would send to replace Santonax as their representative to the colony and hoping they would remain opposed to slavery, he continued to focus on defeating the British. In January of 1798, he would retake the capital, Port-au-Prince, and Rigaud and Beauvais continued to make progress in the south as well. By March, the British had accepted that it was useless to continue fighting. Their forces had been decimated by the unexpectedly well-trained troops of Louverture and Rigaud, and deadly yellow fever lowered their numbers even when they weren't fighting. In total, around 50,000 British soldiers had died in the five years they'd spent on the island, and another 50,000 were declared unfit for future service due to various illnesses and injuries. Damn, 100,000 soldiers taken out of commission. As I mentioned, that's just one of the three big powers fighting there, in addition to the revolutionaries and all their factions. As I mentioned at the beginning, more British soldiers died in Saint-Domingue than died in the American Revolutionary War. One prominent British military historian would write that the British had, quote, poured their troops into these pestilent islands in the expectation that thereby they would destroy the power of France, only to discover, when it was too late, that they had practically destroyed the British army. Britain's role in the Haitian Revolution would also have a major impact on the upcoming Napoleonic Wars in Europe. The same historian would later write that, quote, the secret of England's impotence for the first six years of the war may be said to lie in two fatal words. Saint-Domingue. Britain's failure to take the profitable Caribbean colony also prevented a possible roadblock in the British abolition movement. While the slave trade and plantation economy had been becoming less and less profitable for the British Empire in recent years, allowing their government to explore banning the slave trade and even ending the practice of slavery in their colonies entirely if they had succeeded in taking Saint-Domingue profits would have soared once again. After the British exited the slave trade in 1807 and stopped practicing slavery in 1838 they often used their decision as an example of the great morality of the British Empire. But this is really just a good example that making the moral high road decision is a whole hell of a lot easier when it doesn't cost you any fucking money. Meanwhile, Toussaint faced a new problem. Just as he was making peace with the British, the French sent a new representative, an aristocrat, named the Count of Aduville, Gabriel Marie Theodore Joseph. And after only a few short interactions with him, Toussaint realized that France was acting just as he had feared. After all this fighting, they wanted to reinstitute slavery, completely invalidate all the sacrifices the revolutionaries had made. Gabriel had come with orders to, quote, prevent blacks from abusing their freedom and make sure positions of power belong to the white population. Also planned to drive a wedge between Louverture and the former slaves and Rigaud, Bouvet, and the mixed race population. Convinced that the black population would not accept these changes and that Gabriel would not be able to manage the colony, Louverture resigned from his position and waited for Gabriel to destroy himself. And that turned out to be a smart move. and it wouldn't take very long. Gabriel was attempting to replace many of the black commanders with white ones, which made him immediately very unpopular. And when he attempted to arrest Louverture's nephew, the prominent general, Iacint Moisiz, for refusing to be replaced, the population looked ready to revolt. Toussaint had been watching all this develop and returned now to lead the army, arresting Gabriel, badass, and sending him back to France in October of 1798. Following Gabriel's departure, Toussaint would also give an awesome speech. I reinstate Moises in his former functions. Who reverts to the sword will perish by the sword. Gabriel says that I'm against liberty, that I want to surrender to the English, that I wish to make myself independent. Who ought to love liberty more? Toussaint Louverture, slave of Breda, or General Gabriel, former Marquis and Chevalier de Saint-Louis? if I wish to surrender to the English, would I have chased them away? Remember that there is only one Toussaint Louverture in Saint-Domingue, and that at his name, everybody must tremble. However, even though Toussaint had defeated Gabriel, the representative had still been successful in convincing Rigo and the mixed race population in the South to revolt against Louverture, the man whom he had been fighting alongside since the beginning of the revolution, right? More flip flopping. The old division between the mixed race and the formerly enslaved population was just too large. And in July of 1799, less than a year after Gabriel's arrest, civil war broke out. My God, Bouvet, unable to pick a side in the upcoming civil war, would leave Saint-Domingue for France, sadly dying right before he arrived in Europe in a shipwreck, randomly. While Rigaud was very powerful in the South, Toussaint's military genius and his extreme popularity amongst his soldiers in north would secure his victory. By August 1800, Rigaud had accepted defeat and abandoned the colony to sail for France. Again, so many different factions in this revolution, so many different groups fighting other groups, so many shifting allegiances. But even though Toussaint had finally consolidated power now, we're still not fucking done because back in Europe, Napoleon had now become the ruler of France. And during a short break in his fighting with other European empires, he decided to go fuck with Saint-Domingue. Napoleon had no faith in Louverture's loyalty to France, and he also secretly hoped that he would be able to bring back slavery, damn it, and make the colony as profitable as it had once been. He was also upset that Toussaint had gone to war with the Spanish without his permission in January of 1801, conquering the eastern side of the island and freeing the slaves there. So in late 1801, Napoleon gave his brother-in-law, Charles Leclerc, command of 20,000 soldiers and ordered him to remove Toussaint from power. Louverture had long feared this would happen and upon seeing Leclerc's forces sailing into Le Cap, he would reportedly say, we shall perish. All France has come to overwhelm us. His loyalty to France made it difficult for him to properly resist the invasion and Leclerc made quick gains in the first few weeks. Without clear orders, many of Louverture's generals surrendered, if you could even call it surrendering, since they were technically all French soldiers at this point. He lost the two most important cities in Saint-Domingue, Le Cap, and Port-au-Prince basically without a fight. Finally, in February of 1802, Toussaint and one of his most loyal and fierce generals, another former slave named Jean-Jacques Désalines, started fighting back. While his goal still wasn't to make Saint-Domingue an independent country, he hoped that if he could offer a strong enough resistance to Leclerc's invasion, he could convince Napoleon and the French that removing Louverture and reinstating slavery was a shitty idea, not worth the effort and all the loss of life. First battle came on February 23rd, 1802 in the mountains near the northern port of Gonaive at a place called Rauvinne-a-Coulevra. The French forces were pursuing one of Toussaint's generals. Toussaint hoped to cut them off, push them back, and prevent them from taking Gonaive. This battle would be a brutal one. And Toussaint's speech before it began may have gone a long way to help his side win it. This is fucking badass. Uncover your breasts. You will see them branded by the iron of slavery. During 10 years, what did you not undertake for liberty? Your masters slain or put to flight. The English humiliated by defeat. Discord extinguished. A land of slavery purified by fire and reviving more beautiful than ever under liberty. These are your labors, and these the fruits of your labors, and the foe wishes to snatch both out of your hands. This sky, these mountains, these lands, all are strange to them. What do I say? As soon as they breathe the same air as we, their bravery sinks, their courage departs. Fortune seems to have delivered them as victims into our hands. Those whom the sword spares will be struck dead by an avenging climate. Their bones will be scattered amongst these mountains and rocks and tossed about by the waves of our sea. Nevermore will they behold their native land. Nevermore will they receive the tender embraces of their wives, their sisters, and their mothers, and liberty will reign over their tomb. Well, hail fucking Nimrod. That was sick. At the end of his, at the head of his men, excuse me, Toussaint himself charged the French lines over and over and over again, but was repeatedly pushed back. At one point during the fighting, he learned that his wife and children were hiding not far from the battle, and his response? See that they take the road to Esther. I have my duty to perform. Nothing was going to separate him from his men. The battle raged for hours until finally, late in the afternoon, Toussaint's forces had pushed the French across the stream at the bottom of the ravine before returning back to his camp. They'd won the day. While Louverture was ultimately unable to prevent the French from advancing towards the city, his soldiers had held their own against one of the best European armies of the day and surprise the invaders with their fierce resistance. Meanwhile, French forces further south were preparing to attempt to take control of the important fort of Creta-Pierot on the Artabonite River. Toussaint entrusted the Dessalines with the defense of the fort and Dessalines prepared for the French to attack. The battle for Creta-Pierot would begin on March 2nd and would last for almost a month. Leclerc, who'd wanted to take the fort quickly, was left shocked when Dessaline and his men put up one of the most impressive defenses of the entire revolution so far Multiple times over the course of the siege the rebel army would charge the French lines before turning back and seemingly retreating until they jumped into a ditch just in front of the walls of the fortress where more men laid waiting. These men would mow down the French forces, running without cover, killing hundreds at a time. Besides being unprepared for the rebels' tactical ability, the French also underestimated the resolve of Dessalines and his men. At one point at the beginning of the siege, He told them, take courage, I tell you, take courage. The French will not be able to remain long in Saint-Domingue. They will do well at first, but soon they will fall ill and die like flies. Listen, if Dessalines surrenders to them a hundred times, he will deceive them a hundred times. I repeat, take courage, and you will see that when the French are few, we shall harass them, we shall beat them, we shall burn the harvest and retire to the mountains. They will not be able to guard the country, and they will have to leave. so many good fucking speeches so many warrior poets at another point during the siege he stood next to a barrel of gunpowder held a lit torch and said we're going to be attacked if the french put their feet in here i shall blow everything up his men yelled back in response we shall die for liberty by the end of march almost 2 000 french troops were dead but dessaline troops had no supplies and were weak with hunger and thirst. After holding the fort for almost a month with a force of 1,200 men against 15,000 French, he was finally forced to retreat. While the capture of Creta-Pirot was a massively important victory for Leclerc, Dessalines had made them pay dearly for it. Also, even though Toussaint's soldiers had been resisting the French invasion with impressive ferocity, Toussaint himself was still not entirely committed to the goal of destroying Leclerc's forces and kicking the French off of the colony. He still wanted to remain with France and hoped that the difficulty Leclerc was having in taking control of Saint-Domingue would make him willing to negotiate. For this reason, Toussaint would naively give himself over to Leclerc in May of 1802, and Dessalines' surrender would quickly follow. Unsurprisingly, Louverture had severely misjudged Napoleon's plans for the colony. While the French let him return to his home, and all appeared well at first, Leclerc had no intention to allow Louverture to remain free. on June 7th as Toussaint went to meet with the French in response to an invitation from one of Leclerc's generals he was seized bound and put on a ship heading to France as he stepped onto the ship he reportedly turned to the captain and said something else awesome in overthrowing me you have cut down in Saint-Domingue only the trunk of the tree of liberty it will spring up again from the roots for they are numerous and they are deep if I can quote from this war legendary Toussaint Louverture will die just a few months later in a cold prison cell at the base of the Alps, an anticlimactic ending for such an important man. For almost 10 years, he had fought tirelessly to ensure that the former slaves of Saint-Domingue would never again be forced into chains. But even though the final hurdle in a direct war of independence against the French had ultimately tripped him up, the generals that he had promoted and the men that he had trained into professional soldiers, capable of going toe-to-toe with Napoleon's best, would continue to protect his home even after he was defeated. Right? He was right. The trunk of the tree of liberty would indeed spring up again from the roots, for they were numerous and they were deep. For the moment, however, with Louverture captured and his former generals holding positions in Leclerc's army, Napoleon was in complete control. But Napoleon didn't just want control. He wanted to bring back the absurd profits of the old plantation economy, and that required the reinstitution of slavery. His officers knew how difficult it would be to re-enslave the large black population in the colony. Leclerc advised that a war of extermination against the black population was necessary, that they would have to bring in a whole new crop of slaves from Africa who knew nothing of liberty and freedom, right? Just fucking evil. He wanted to kill them all and start over. That's how little he thought of them, did not see them as human beings. While his new plan for the colony was terrifying and insane, Leclerc was right in fearing that the free men of Saint-Domingue would not accept being put back into chains. And when word began to spread in July of 1802 that Natolian was a fuckhead and planning on restoring slavery, the population in the colony, right? They got a little agitated. More and more men fled into the forest and Leclerc, sick with yellow fever, had to devote all his time to putting down various uprisings. Then in October, Dessalines and a few other generals that had served under Louverture defected and they began fighting the French in a true war of independence again. Dessalines, who stayed true to his word and deceived, the French had foreseen this struggle for some time. Two years earlier, after Louverture had won the civil war against Rigaud, Dessalines had reportedly told his troops, the war you have just won is a little war, but you have two more bigger ones. One is against the Spaniards, who do not want to give up their land and who have insulted your brave commander-in-chief. The other is against France, who will try to make you slaves again as soon as she is finished with her enemies. We'll win those wars. Leclerc would die of fever only a month later, in November of 1802. And then Donatian de Rochambeau, the man who replaced him, a brutal commander, fucking very intense racist, even by the standards of the day, he takes over. In his history of the war, C.L.R. James gives some harrowing descriptions of the atrocity that dude committed. Rochambeau drowned so many people in the Bay of Le Cap that for many a long day, the people of the district would not eat fish. Following the example of the Spaniards in Cuba and the English in Jamaica, he brought 1,500 dogs to hunt down the blacks. On a certain day, a young black man was led in and bound to a post, while the whites at Le Cap, the women in brilliant costumes, sat waiting. To the sound of martial music arrived Rochambeau, surrounded by his staff. But when the dogs were let loose, they did not attack the victim. Boyer, chief of staff, jumped into the arena and with a stroke of his sword, cut open the belly of the black man. At the sight and scent of the blood, the dogs threw themselves on the black man and devoured him. While the applause ran round the arena and the band played. To encourage them in a liking for blood, blacks were daily delivered to them. Until the dogs, though useless for battle, would throw themselves on blacks at sight. Fuck. All the vile racist fucks we still have living in the U.S. and abroad. Man, they have always been here. but in Dessalines Rochambeau met his match though his brutality became a problem after the nation won their independence or will become in the moment he was what the revolution needed when Rochambeau executed 500 blacks and threw them into a mass grave Dessalines responded by hanging 500 whites left them up in the trees for the French soldiers to see them it was a devastating war but Dessalines and the newly named indigenous army continued to make gains until the French were left clinging only to Le Cap. Then on November 16th, 1803, the brutal Battle of Vertier would take place nearby as the indigenous army attempted to take some important forts outside of the city. James's book offers a vivid description of the battle. Clairvaux, the mulatto, was in command, and with him was Capois Death, a Negro officer so called on account of his bravery. Dude's fucking name was literally Capois Death. From early morning, the National Army attacked. In the afternoon under the crossfire of musketry and artillery, Capois led the assault on the block houses of Breda and Champlin. Shouting forward, forward, the French were strongly entrenched and drove off the blacks again and again, only to see them return to the attack with undiminished ardor. A bullet knocked over Capois' horse. Boiling with rage, he scrambled up and making a gesture of contempt with his sword, he continued to advance forward, forward. The French, who had fought on so many fields had never seen fighting like this. From all sides came a storm of shouts. Bravo, bravo. There was a roll of drums. The French ceased fire. A French horseman rode out in advance to the bridge. He brought a message from Rochambeau. The captain general sends his admiring compliments to the officer who has just covered himself with so much glory. Without a shot fired from the blacks, the horseman turned and rode back to the blockhouse and the battle began again. that's pretty badass they respected just like good fighting so much they're like oh hold up hold up time out we just want to take a little break in the battle to tell you guys that we thought that that last play that was fucking sick dude that was really fucking cool okay let's fight again while Dessaline was not able to take the fort that day the French suffered devastating losses and it became clear that they could not hold on much longer Rochambeau decided to evacuate the same night and by the 19th the French had left the island completely. After so much bullshit, a fucking dozen years, so many stops and starts and twists and turns and betrayals, the slaves had at long last won their bloody war. Dessalines would officially declare independence from France on January 1st, 1804, and crown himself Emperor Jacques I. The former colony of Saint-Domingue would be renamed to Haiti, the term that the indigenous Taino people had used to refer to the island. To be clear, they didn't rule the entire island of Hispaniola. The eastern side, known as Santo Domingo, would remain under Spanish and later French control, though it would briefly be unified under Haitian rule between 1822 and 1844. Meanwhile, going back to France's loss in 1804, Napoleon, who had had plans to massively increase the size of France's colonial empire in the Americas, got fucking shook by what happened in Haiti. The defeat truly shocked the French emperor, and when the American president, Thomas Jefferson, approached him to ask about the purchase of the city of New Orleans, Napoleon offered him the entire Louisiana territory instead. So if you ever wonder why the United States was able to make Louisiana purchase at such a ridiculously low price, you can thank Haiti more than anybody else. In all the conflict had taken the lives of 75,000 French soldiers, as well as roughly 200,000 former slaves, My God, a truly catastrophic amount of death for a colony that only had around 550,000 inhabitants in the years before the fighting broke out. And the loss of life, not over yet. Following the victory, Dessalines was full of hate for the remaining white population, suspicious that the former rich plantation owners would attempt to reinstitute slavery at any opportunity, whether it was under Leclerc, the Spanish, or the British. So he ordered the massacre of most of the remaining whites on the island who had refused to evacuate with Rochambeau's forces. This was certainly brutal, but also rational based on the history of the island. While it's the most universally criticized moment of the Haitian Revolution and was a massacre that resulted in the deaths of around 5,000 people, some of them children, compared to the 200,000 former slaves that died over the course of the revolution, some of them also children, and all the shit that happened during slavery, it's understandable. Also, just a little cool side note. One group of whites was notably spared from the massacre, and that was a community of roughly 400 Polish soldiers. Since Poland was an ally of France during the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleon had sent those men to fight on behalf of the French with General Leclerc. However, the Polish soldiers, who had seen their own people suffer under foreign rule, they quickly sympathized with the former slaves once they showed up and they refused to fight against them. Yeah, Poland, my wife's people playing heroes again. The remaining 400-ish Poles settled in the small village of Cazal and under Dessaline, they were the only white people in Haiti allowed to settle their own land. If you visit this village today, not sure how many people live in the village proper, but about 20,000 live in the area, you will notice that many of the people have visibly Polish features and remain proud of their Polish heritage today. Pretty awesome. Unfortunately, the rest of this wrap-up, not quite as fun. Haiti had been devastated by constant fighting for over 12 years, and the massacre of the whites unsurprisingly made European countries unwilling to do a lot of trading with the young nation. Also, Dessalines ruled the country with an iron fist, and his brutality resulted in his own assassination in 1806. After his death, Haiti went through a long period of instability and civil war between the North and the South, with that old hatred between the mixed race and Black populations rearing his ugly head yet again. Finally, in 1820, it was reunited as a republic, but even then, its struggles not over. France demanded a large reparations payment To recognize Haiti's independence Which is fucking absurd But to allow them to trade with other European nations They wanted 150 million francs A ludicrous amount And not the only time that France has done that to a former colony Historian Alex von Tunzelman Offers a good description of what this payment did to the Haitian Republic The long and the short of it is that Haiti was paying reparations to France From 1825 until 1947. To come up with the money, it took out huge loans from American, German, and French banks at exorbitant rates of interest. By 1900, Haiti was spending about 80% of its national budget on loan repayments. It completely wrecked the economy. By the time the original reparations and interests were paid off, the place was basically destitute and trapped in a spiral of debt. And that's one of the main reasons Haiti struggles economically to this day. not because they've proven incapable of ruling themselves not because, you know, just a bunch of fucking gangs and violence no, it's because imperial powers like France, Germany and the US went out of their way to fuck them over and had that not happened, the government and economy there might be infinitely more stable and far less corrupt than it is currently it'd be nice if this episode could have ended on a happier note but France wanted to show the world and the rest of its colonies that even when you win, you still lose when you fuck with us but still the fact that the Haitian people through their own bravery and ability, free themselves from slavery, fighting and defeating some of the best armies in Europe and the process is incredible. And a story that I love to share. Hope you heard the enthusiasm in my voice and I hoped it was one that you loved to hear. And that's it for this edition of Time Sucks Short Sucks. If you enjoyed this story, check out the rest of the Bad Magic Catalog. Beef your episodes of Time Sucks every Monday at noon Pacific time. New episode to the now long running paranormal podcast Scared to Death, Tuesdays at Midnight, two episodes of Nightmare Fuel, a fictional horror thrown into the mix each month. If you didn't like this story, go fuck yourself. It's a really good story. Thanks to my son, Kyler Cummins, for suggesting it and killing it with the initial research. Great job, young man. Very proud of you, Bubba. And thank you, Logan Keith, polishing up the sound of today's episode. Please go to badmagicproductions.com for all your bad magic needs and have a great weekend. Add Magic Productions