Saint-Domingue expedition
Encyclopedia
The Saint-Domingue expedition was a French military expedition sent by Napoleon Bonaparte
, then First Consul
, under his brother-in-law Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc
in an attempt to regain French control of the island of Saint-Domingue
and curtail the measures of independence taken by the former slave Toussaint Louverture. It landed in December 1801 and, after initial success, ended in a French defeat at the battle of Vertières
and the departure of French troops in December 1803.
led to serious social upheavals on Saint-Domingue, of which the most important was the slave revolt that led to the abolition of slavery in 1793 by the civil commissioners Sonthonax
and Polverel
, in a decision endorsed and spread to all the French colonies by the National Convention
6 months later. Toussaint Louverture, a former black slave who had been made Governor by France, re-established peace, fought off Spanish and British attempts to capture the island and reestablished prosperity by daring measures. However, he went too far in hunting down governor Don Joaquín García y Moreno (27 January 1801), who had remained in what had been the Spanish part of the island following the 1795 Peace of Basel
, and in promulgating a self-rule constitution on 12 July 1801.
On 9 February 1801, after their defeat at , the Austrians split off from the Second Coalition and signed the Treaty of Lunéville
with France. Naples then signed a peace treaty with the French at Florence and Russia under Paul I
distanced itself from the coalition, with his successor Alexander I
finally concluded a secret peace with Bonaparte on 10 October 1801. Britain was thus isolated and, after the first ministry
of William Pitt the Younger
fell on 13 March 1801, the new government began to consider making peace.
Bonaparte
(now First Consul) could thus concentrate on internal problems within France and its empire. His troops were idle and his officers eager for a chance for glory. Influenced by creoles and merchants, he thus decided to send his sister Pauline
's husband, general Leclerc, to aid Toussaint, offer him the rôle of lieutenant of France, confirm the military ranks and lands acquired by Toussaint's officers, guarantee freedom to the former slaves but also re-establish Paris's authority over the island in the person of its capitaine général
. Toussaint's two sons were then being educated in France and as proof to Toussaint the French government's goodwill Bonaparte sent them back to their father with their tutor.
Even so, Bonaparte still foresaw that Toussaint would probably put up resistance and so took all necessary measures to defeat him should that occur – Toussaint had over 16,000 men available, so Leclerc was put in command of 30,000 men drawn from nearly all the French Revolutionary Armies as well as the disciplinary corps.
Peace had not yet been conclusively signed with Britain (the Peace of Amiens would finally be signed on 25 March 1802) when on 14 December 1801 a French fleet of 21 frigates and 35 ships of the line (with one 120 gun ship) left Brest
under Villaret de Joyeuse
carrying 7,000–8,000 troops. This fleet was followed by the squadron under contre-amiral Ganteaume
which left Toulon
on 14 February with 4,200 troops then by that under contre-amiral Linois which left Cadiz
on 17 February with 2,400 troops. In the following months even more ships left France with fresh troops, including over 4,000 men were also sent from the artillerie de marine, a Dutch division and a Polish Legion. In total 31,131 troops were landed on Saint-Domingue
, including some black figures such as André Rigaud
, who had joined a brigade of volunteers in 1779 which had fought in the American Revolutionary War
(after the Saint-Domingue expedition's failure, he would be imprisoned at fort de Joux
by Napoleon, a few cells away from Toussaint himself), and Alexandre Pétion
(who had led a revolt of free people of colour at Jacmel
in 1799).
The ships were due to join up in the bay of Samaná
, which Villaret de Joyeuse reached on 29 January, closely followed by Latouche-Tréville. Without waiting for Ganteaume and Linois, these two admirals divided up their combined fleets to arrive at different ports in order to surprise Toussaint. General Kerverseau was to land at Santo Domingo
in the Spanish part of the island, general Jean Boudet
was sent to take Port-au-Prince
in ships under Latouche-Tréville, and Leclerc and Villaret de Joyeuse sailed towards to Cap-Haïtien
. When Toussaint discovered the French ships in the bay of Samaná he ordered Henri Christophe
(head of the island's northern département), Dessalines
(head of the western département) and Laplume (head of the southern département) to obey the squadrons' summons to a parley, to insist on a parley if none was offered, and (if a landing should occur) to threaten to destroy the towns and massacre the white inhabitants before retreating into the mountains.
and Léogâne
and obtained Laplume's surrender. Landing at Santo Domingo with 2,000 men, general Kerverseau took possession of a large part of the Spanish area of the island, then headed by Toussaint's brother Paul Louverture.
In the first ten days the French occupied the island's ports, towns and a large part of the cultivated land. Taking refuge in the Arbonite
massif, Toussaint was only left with a few brigades under generals Maurepas, Christophe and Dessalines. However, he also had a large number of white hostages. To dislodge him the French would have to overcome narrow gorges, impenetrable with thick tropical vegetation and ideal for ambushes. The squadrons under Ganteaume and Linois had arrived, however, with reinforcements and Leclerc still held his joker in the form of his own hostages, Toussaint's sons, both of whom carried a letter from Napoleon promising their father the role of Leclerc's deputy in command of the island if he surrendered.
On 17 February Leclerc launched a simultaneous assault with the divisions he had formed. Rochambeau on the left set out from Fort-Dauphin towards Saint-Michel, whilst Hardy marched on Marmelade and Desfourneaux on Plaisance. At the same time general Humbert
was to land at Port-de-Paix to climb up the Trois-Rivières gorge, and Boudet move up from south to north. The aim was to surprise the enemy, force him to retreat to Les Gonaïves and there encircle him. Despite the difficulties of the terrain and Maurepas's resistance, the plan worked well.
On 23 February Desfourneaux's division entered Les Gonaïves, then on fire. General Boudet occupied Saint-Marc, also on fire and filled with the blood of the throats cut on the orders of Dessalines, who managed to escape the trap. Maurepas and his 2,000 troops continued to resist but finally had to surrender to Humbert. The French forces besieging fort de la Crête-à-Pierrot were attacked in the rear by Dessalines then by Toussaint as they attempted to bring relief to the besieged, but the fort was finally forced to surrender and inside it were found large amounts of arms and munitions as well as many assassinated white residents. At Les Verrettes the French forces found a horrible spectacle. No longer able to follow the rebel forces' march, 800 men, women, children and old people had been killed, and the rebels there had also killed any prisoners they took.
Running out of resources, the area controlled by the rebel forces became more and more restricted and the rebels more and more disheartened. Christophe offered to lay down his arms in exchange for being given the same lenient treatment as had been given Laplume and Maurepas and his surrender led to that of Dessalines and finally of Toussaint. Under house arrest, Toussaint was restored to his rank and properties by Leclerc. At the end of April and start of May order was re-established little by little on the island, trade resumed at the ports and the rebels (seemingly reconciled to their situation) held onto their lands and ranks.
, with around 15,000 dead in only 2 months. Toussaint continued corresponding with his leaders, encouraging them to be ever ready, although some of them did not want to re-start the war and warned Leclerc. Sensing danger, in June Leclerc called Toussaint to an interview, arrested him, put him on a ship and sent him to Europe, where he was held at the Fort de Joux
.
Martinique
was returned to France by the Treaty of Amiens and the Law of 20 May 1802
confirmed that slavery would be continued there. News of the reestablishment of slavery on Guadeloupe
reached Saint-Domingue and revolt threatened again. Leclerc judged it wisest to disarm the blacks, but this just made them more angry. At Basse-Terre
on Guadeloupe yellow fever had also broken out and on 3 September Richepanse
died of it, to be replaced by Boudet. Rochambeau, who hated 'mulatto
s' more than blacks, succeeded to Boudet's post on Saint-Domingue. Toussaint's old enemy and rival Rigaud
was ordered to embark for the United States of America. In the south of the island, where mulattos were most numerous, they were equally offended and allied themselves with the blacks. The wind of revolt, blowing especially through the north, was also spreading in the south.
The French forces, now only 8 to 10,000 men and only just able to serve, was overwhelmed. Taking refuge on Tortuga, in an attempt to avoid the disease, Leclerc died of it on 1 November 1802. His wife Pauline Bonaparte
had accompanied her husband to the island and, though she had not previously been a model of fidelity, his death threw her into despair – she cut off her hair, put it in her husband's coffin, put his heart in an urn and had the rest of his remains repatriated to France. As the oldest on the expedition Rochambeau took over from Leclerc as supreme commander and tried in vain to suppress the new revolt. Cap-Haïtien seemed to be the last bastion of the anti-rebel forces and, when the rebels reached it, Christophe had already relieved one of the forts. Rochambeau recaptured it but at the height of the battle some 1,200 blacks being held prisoner on a ship in the bay threw its crew overboard. On 18 November 1803, near the Cap, the French were defeated at the battle of Vertières
by the rebel general Jean-Jacques Dessalines
and at the end of December the last French soldiers left the island. On their voyage back to France Rochambeau was captured by the British and then interned in Britain for nearly nine years as a parole prisoner.
system that did not include slavery per se but was still aimed at maintaining sugar industry profits by force. Dessalines was assassinated on 17 October 1806 and the country split into a kingdom in the north under Christophe as Henri I and a republic in the south under Alexandre Pétion
. In 1826 Charles X of France
claimed a 150 million gold-francs indemnity from the young republic in return for France recognising its independence. This debt to France was reduced to 90 million in 1838 and was finally paid.
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
, then First Consul
French Consulate
The Consulate was the government of France between the fall of the Directory in the coup of 18 Brumaire in 1799 until the start of the Napoleonic Empire in 1804...
, under his brother-in-law Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc
Charles Leclerc
Charles Victoire Emmanuel Leclerc was a French Army general and husband to Pauline Bonaparte, sister to Napoleon Bonaparte.-To 1801:...
in an attempt to regain French control of the island of Saint-Domingue
Saint-Domingue
The labour for these plantations was provided by an estimated 790,000 African slaves . Between 1764 and 1771, the average annual importation of slaves varied between 10,000-15,000; by 1786 it was about 28,000, and from 1787 onward, the colony received more than 40,000 slaves a year...
and curtail the measures of independence taken by the former slave Toussaint Louverture. It landed in December 1801 and, after initial success, ended in a French defeat at the battle of Vertières
Battle of Vertières
The Battle of Vertières , the last major battle of the Second War of Haitian Independence, the final part of the Haitian Revolution under François Capois. It was fought between Haitian rebels and French expeditionary forces on 18 November 1803 at Vertières...
and the departure of French troops in December 1803.
Context
The French RevolutionFrench Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
led to serious social upheavals on Saint-Domingue, of which the most important was the slave revolt that led to the abolition of slavery in 1793 by the civil commissioners Sonthonax
Léger-Félicité Sonthonax
Léger-Félicité Sonthonax was a French Girondist and abolitionist during the French Revolution who controlled 7,000 French troops in Saint-Domingue during part of the Haitian Revolution. His official title was Civil Commissioner. From September 1792 - December 1795 he was the de facto ruler of...
and Polverel
Étienne Polverel
Étienne Polverel was one of two French Revolutionary Civil Commissioners who ended slavery in Saint-Domingue in 1793 during the Haïtian Revolution.-Life:...
, in a decision endorsed and spread to all the French colonies by the National Convention
National Convention
During the French Revolution, the National Convention or Convention, in France, comprised the constitutional and legislative assembly which sat from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795 . It held executive power in France during the first years of the French First Republic...
6 months later. Toussaint Louverture, a former black slave who had been made Governor by France, re-established peace, fought off Spanish and British attempts to capture the island and reestablished prosperity by daring measures. However, he went too far in hunting down governor Don Joaquín García y Moreno (27 January 1801), who had remained in what had been the Spanish part of the island following the 1795 Peace of Basel
Peace of Basel
The Peace of Basel of 1795 consists of three peace treaties involving France .* The first of the three treaties of 1795, France made peace with Prussia on 5 April; , * The Second was with Spain on 22 July, ending the War of the Pyrenees; and*...
, and in promulgating a self-rule constitution on 12 July 1801.
Treaty of Lunéville
The Treaty of Lunéville was signed on 9 February 1801 between the French Republic and the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, negotiating both on behalf of his own domains and of the Holy Roman Empire...
with France. Naples then signed a peace treaty with the French at Florence and Russia under Paul I
Paul I of Russia
Paul I was the Emperor of Russia between 1796 and 1801. He also was the 72nd Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta .-Childhood:...
distanced itself from the coalition, with his successor Alexander I
Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....
finally concluded a secret peace with Bonaparte on 10 October 1801. Britain was thus isolated and, after the first ministry
First Pitt the Younger Ministry
-The initial ministry:For the first several days of the ministry, Lord Temple held both the secretaryships of state.-Changes:*March, 1784 - The Duke of Rutland becomes Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, remaining also Lord Privy Seal....
of William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger was a British politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He became the youngest Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24 . He left office in 1801, but was Prime Minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806...
fell on 13 March 1801, the new government began to consider making peace.
Bonaparte
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
(now First Consul) could thus concentrate on internal problems within France and its empire. His troops were idle and his officers eager for a chance for glory. Influenced by creoles and merchants, he thus decided to send his sister Pauline
Pauline Bonaparte
Pauline Bonaparte was the first sovereign Duchess of Guastalla, an imperial French Princess and the Princess consort of Sulmona and Rossano. She was the sixth child of Letizia Ramolino and Carlo Buonaparte, Corsica's representative to the court of King Louis XVI of France. Her elder brother,...
's husband, general Leclerc, to aid Toussaint, offer him the rôle of lieutenant of France, confirm the military ranks and lands acquired by Toussaint's officers, guarantee freedom to the former slaves but also re-establish Paris's authority over the island in the person of its capitaine général
Captain General
Captain general is a high military rank and a gubernatorial title.-History:This term Captain General started to appear in the 14th century, with the meaning of commander in chief of an army in the field, probably the first usage of the term General in military settings...
. Toussaint's two sons were then being educated in France and as proof to Toussaint the French government's goodwill Bonaparte sent them back to their father with their tutor.
Even so, Bonaparte still foresaw that Toussaint would probably put up resistance and so took all necessary measures to defeat him should that occur – Toussaint had over 16,000 men available, so Leclerc was put in command of 30,000 men drawn from nearly all the French Revolutionary Armies as well as the disciplinary corps.
Expedition
Brest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...
under Villaret de Joyeuse
Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse
Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse was a French admiral.-Early career:Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse was born in Auch, in the heart of Gascony. The Villaret de Joyeuse family figured among the minor nobility from Languedoc...
carrying 7,000–8,000 troops. This fleet was followed by the squadron under contre-amiral Ganteaume
Honoré Joseph Antoine Ganteaume
Count Honoré Joseph Antoine Ganteaume was a French admiral.Ganteaume was born to a family of merchant sailors, and sailed on a dozen commercial cruises in his youth...
which left Toulon
Toulon
Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....
on 14 February with 4,200 troops then by that under contre-amiral Linois which left Cadiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
on 17 February with 2,400 troops. In the following months even more ships left France with fresh troops, including over 4,000 men were also sent from the artillerie de marine, a Dutch division and a Polish Legion. In total 31,131 troops were landed on Saint-Domingue
Saint-Domingue
The labour for these plantations was provided by an estimated 790,000 African slaves . Between 1764 and 1771, the average annual importation of slaves varied between 10,000-15,000; by 1786 it was about 28,000, and from 1787 onward, the colony received more than 40,000 slaves a year...
, including some black figures such as André Rigaud
André Rigaud
Benoit Joseph André Rigaud was the leading mulatto military leader during the Haïtian Revolution. Among his protégés were Alexandre Pétion and Jean-Pierre Boyer, both future presidents of Haïti.-The revolutionary:...
, who had joined a brigade of volunteers in 1779 which had fought in the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
(after the Saint-Domingue expedition's failure, he would be imprisoned at fort de Joux
Fort de Joux
The Fort de Joux or Château de Joux is a castle, transformed into a fort, located in La Cluse-et-Mijoux, in the Doubs département, in the Jura mountains of France. It commands the mountain pass "Cluse de Pontarlier"....
by Napoleon, a few cells away from Toussaint himself), and Alexandre Pétion
Alexandre Pétion
Alexandre Sabès Pétion was President of the Republic of Haiti from 1806 until his death. He is considered as one of Haiti's founding fathers, together with Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and his rival Henri Christophe.-Early life:Pétion was born in Port-au-Prince to a Haitian...
(who had led a revolt of free people of colour at Jacmel
Jacmel
Jacmel, also known by its indigenous Taíno name of Yaquimel, is a town in southern Haiti founded in 1698. It is the capital of the department of Sud-Est and has an estimated population of 40,000, while the municipality of Jacmel had a population of 137,966 at the 2003 Census.The buildings are...
in 1799).
Samaná
Samaná is a province of the Dominican Republic. Its capital is Santa Bárbara de Samaná, usually known as Samaná.Samaná is located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in the northeastern part of the Dominican Republic. It is known for its mountains of which it is almost entirely formed...
, which Villaret de Joyeuse reached on 29 January, closely followed by Latouche-Tréville. Without waiting for Ganteaume and Linois, these two admirals divided up their combined fleets to arrive at different ports in order to surprise Toussaint. General Kerverseau was to land at Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...
in the Spanish part of the island, general Jean Boudet
Jean Boudet
Jean Boudet was a French général de division of the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. The campaigns in which he was involved include the Saint-Domingue expedition...
was sent to take Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince is the capital and largest city of the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The city's population was 704,776 as of the 2003 census, and was officially estimated to have reached 897,859 in 2009....
in ships under Latouche-Tréville, and Leclerc and Villaret de Joyeuse sailed towards to Cap-Haïtien
Cap-Haïtien
Cap-Haïtien is a city of about 190,000 people on the north coast of Haiti and capital of the Department of Nord...
. When Toussaint discovered the French ships in the bay of Samaná he ordered Henri Christophe
Henri Christophe
Henri Christophe was a key leader in the Haitian Revolution, winning independence from France in 1804. On 17 February 1807, after the creation of a separate nation in the north, Christophe was elected President of the State of Haiti...
(head of the island's northern département), Dessalines
Jean-Jacques Dessalines
Jean-Jacques Dessalines was a leader of the Haitian Revolution and the first ruler of an independent Haiti under the 1801 constitution. Initially regarded as Governor-General, Dessalines later named himself Emperor Jacques I of Haiti...
(head of the western département) and Laplume (head of the southern département) to obey the squadrons' summons to a parley, to insist on a parley if none was offered, and (if a landing should occur) to threaten to destroy the towns and massacre the white inhabitants before retreating into the mountains.
Reconquest
Villaret arrived before Cap-Haïtien on 3 February and an attack by land and sea began on 5 February. Christophe carried out his orders, setting light to the town and slitting the throats of part of the white population. On 6 February Rochambeau landed in the bay of Mancenille and captured Fort-Dauphin. Putting out the fires and putting up defensive works, Leclerc set up his main headquarters at Cap-Haïtien before sending ships towards North America to resupply. During this time Latouche-Tréville and Boudet took Port-au-PrincePort-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince is the capital and largest city of the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The city's population was 704,776 as of the 2003 census, and was officially estimated to have reached 897,859 in 2009....
and Léogâne
Léogane
Léogâne is a seaside town in Ouest Department, Haïti. It is located in the eponymous arrondissement, the Léogâne Arrondissement. The port town is located about West of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. The town was at the epicenter of the 12 January 2010 earthquake, and was catastrophically...
and obtained Laplume's surrender. Landing at Santo Domingo with 2,000 men, general Kerverseau took possession of a large part of the Spanish area of the island, then headed by Toussaint's brother Paul Louverture.
Artibonite River
The Artibonite River is a 320 km long river in Haiti . It is the longest as well as the most important river in Haiti and the longest on the island of Hispaniola. Forming part of the international border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the river's sources are in the Cordillera Central in...
massif, Toussaint was only left with a few brigades under generals Maurepas, Christophe and Dessalines. However, he also had a large number of white hostages. To dislodge him the French would have to overcome narrow gorges, impenetrable with thick tropical vegetation and ideal for ambushes. The squadrons under Ganteaume and Linois had arrived, however, with reinforcements and Leclerc still held his joker in the form of his own hostages, Toussaint's sons, both of whom carried a letter from Napoleon promising their father the role of Leclerc's deputy in command of the island if he surrendered.
On 17 February Leclerc launched a simultaneous assault with the divisions he had formed. Rochambeau on the left set out from Fort-Dauphin towards Saint-Michel, whilst Hardy marched on Marmelade and Desfourneaux on Plaisance. At the same time general Humbert
Jean Joseph Amable Humbert
General Jean Joseph Amable Humbert was a French soldier, a participant in the French Revolution, who led a failed invasion of Ireland to assist Irish rebels in 1798....
was to land at Port-de-Paix to climb up the Trois-Rivières gorge, and Boudet move up from south to north. The aim was to surprise the enemy, force him to retreat to Les Gonaïves and there encircle him. Despite the difficulties of the terrain and Maurepas's resistance, the plan worked well.
On 23 February Desfourneaux's division entered Les Gonaïves, then on fire. General Boudet occupied Saint-Marc, also on fire and filled with the blood of the throats cut on the orders of Dessalines, who managed to escape the trap. Maurepas and his 2,000 troops continued to resist but finally had to surrender to Humbert. The French forces besieging fort de la Crête-à-Pierrot were attacked in the rear by Dessalines then by Toussaint as they attempted to bring relief to the besieged, but the fort was finally forced to surrender and inside it were found large amounts of arms and munitions as well as many assassinated white residents. At Les Verrettes the French forces found a horrible spectacle. No longer able to follow the rebel forces' march, 800 men, women, children and old people had been killed, and the rebels there had also killed any prisoners they took.
Running out of resources, the area controlled by the rebel forces became more and more restricted and the rebels more and more disheartened. Christophe offered to lay down his arms in exchange for being given the same lenient treatment as had been given Laplume and Maurepas and his surrender led to that of Dessalines and finally of Toussaint. Under house arrest, Toussaint was restored to his rank and properties by Leclerc. At the end of April and start of May order was re-established little by little on the island, trade resumed at the ports and the rebels (seemingly reconciled to their situation) held onto their lands and ranks.
Defeat
In retirement under house arrest at Ennery, Toussaint considered his revenge and saw the French forces (especially those who had only just arrived on the island) ravaged by his best ally, yellow feverYellow fever
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....
, with around 15,000 dead in only 2 months. Toussaint continued corresponding with his leaders, encouraging them to be ever ready, although some of them did not want to re-start the war and warned Leclerc. Sensing danger, in June Leclerc called Toussaint to an interview, arrested him, put him on a ship and sent him to Europe, where he was held at the Fort de Joux
Fort de Joux
The Fort de Joux or Château de Joux is a castle, transformed into a fort, located in La Cluse-et-Mijoux, in the Doubs département, in the Jura mountains of France. It commands the mountain pass "Cluse de Pontarlier"....
.
Martinique
Martinique
Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
was returned to France by the Treaty of Amiens and the Law of 20 May 1802
Law of 20 May 1802
The Law of 20 May 1802 was a French law passed on 20 May 1802 , revoking the law of 4 February 1794 which had abolished slavery in all the French colonies...
confirmed that slavery would be continued there. News of the reestablishment of slavery on Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe...
reached Saint-Domingue and revolt threatened again. Leclerc judged it wisest to disarm the blacks, but this just made them more angry. At Basse-Terre
Basse-Terre
Basse-Terre is the prefecture of Guadeloupe, an overseas region and department of France located in the Lesser Antilles...
on Guadeloupe yellow fever had also broken out and on 3 September Richepanse
Antoine Richepanse
Antoine Richepanse was a French revolutionary general and colonial administrator.-Military career:Richepanse was born in Metz as the son of an officer of the Regiment of Conti...
died of it, to be replaced by Boudet. Rochambeau, who hated 'mulatto
Mulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
s' more than blacks, succeeded to Boudet's post on Saint-Domingue. Toussaint's old enemy and rival Rigaud
André Rigaud
Benoit Joseph André Rigaud was the leading mulatto military leader during the Haïtian Revolution. Among his protégés were Alexandre Pétion and Jean-Pierre Boyer, both future presidents of Haïti.-The revolutionary:...
was ordered to embark for the United States of America. In the south of the island, where mulattos were most numerous, they were equally offended and allied themselves with the blacks. The wind of revolt, blowing especially through the north, was also spreading in the south.
Pauline Bonaparte
Pauline Bonaparte was the first sovereign Duchess of Guastalla, an imperial French Princess and the Princess consort of Sulmona and Rossano. She was the sixth child of Letizia Ramolino and Carlo Buonaparte, Corsica's representative to the court of King Louis XVI of France. Her elder brother,...
had accompanied her husband to the island and, though she had not previously been a model of fidelity, his death threw her into despair – she cut off her hair, put it in her husband's coffin, put his heart in an urn and had the rest of his remains repatriated to France. As the oldest on the expedition Rochambeau took over from Leclerc as supreme commander and tried in vain to suppress the new revolt. Cap-Haïtien seemed to be the last bastion of the anti-rebel forces and, when the rebels reached it, Christophe had already relieved one of the forts. Rochambeau recaptured it but at the height of the battle some 1,200 blacks being held prisoner on a ship in the bay threw its crew overboard. On 18 November 1803, near the Cap, the French were defeated at the battle of Vertières
Battle of Vertières
The Battle of Vertières , the last major battle of the Second War of Haitian Independence, the final part of the Haitian Revolution under François Capois. It was fought between Haitian rebels and French expeditionary forces on 18 November 1803 at Vertières...
by the rebel general Jean-Jacques Dessalines
Jean-Jacques Dessalines
Jean-Jacques Dessalines was a leader of the Haitian Revolution and the first ruler of an independent Haiti under the 1801 constitution. Initially regarded as Governor-General, Dessalines later named himself Emperor Jacques I of Haiti...
and at the end of December the last French soldiers left the island. On their voyage back to France Rochambeau was captured by the British and then interned in Britain for nearly nine years as a parole prisoner.
Results
Little more than 7 to 8,000 of the 31,000 soldiers sent to Saint-Domingue survived and over 20 French generals died. On 1 January 1804 Dessalines proclaimed the colony of Saint-Domingue to be the second independent state in the Americas, under the name of Haiti, and was first made governor general for life before (on 6 October 1804) being crowned emperor as Jacques I. He massacred the last French colonists left on Haiti and followed a "caporalisme agraire" or serfdomSerfdom
Serfdom is the status of peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to Manorialism. It was a condition of bondage or modified slavery which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe and lasted to the mid-19th century...
system that did not include slavery per se but was still aimed at maintaining sugar industry profits by force. Dessalines was assassinated on 17 October 1806 and the country split into a kingdom in the north under Christophe as Henri I and a republic in the south under Alexandre Pétion
Alexandre Pétion
Alexandre Sabès Pétion was President of the Republic of Haiti from 1806 until his death. He is considered as one of Haiti's founding fathers, together with Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and his rival Henri Christophe.-Early life:Pétion was born in Port-au-Prince to a Haitian...
. In 1826 Charles X of France
Charles X of France
Charles X was known for most of his life as the Comte d'Artois before he reigned as King of France and of Navarre from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. A younger brother to Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him...
claimed a 150 million gold-francs indemnity from the young republic in return for France recognising its independence. This debt to France was reduced to 90 million in 1838 and was finally paid.