Everyone has to draw their own conclusions about that, Bob. I have simply learned that the French Napoleonic troops were here on this side of the island at this time, that thery authorized anyone on this side of the border to capture any children and return them to slavery.. as in .. enlist the few residents that were here into slave trading.
so .. I don't know.. was it excessive to burn the place to the ground?
If your ancestors had been the Haitians, do you think that they would have been excessive?
As for my agenda.. true that I do carry a sort of anti slavery feminist agenda
that I probably will never drop,, my grand mother's grandmother also carried it.
Josephine Sophia White Griffing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . The family has entrusted me with the task of continuing with her papers and legacy. But her papers are well kept now at Columbia University. Her name is well known by those who have attended any of the traditional black colleges in the United States. So I guess this is just sorta in my blood.
(I was supposed to write a doctorate but .. well,, wanted to drop out of post grad)
But I have really made an effort here to stick to published sources.
I have enven made efforts to publish the Haitian atrocities in English.
I have asked time and again for Dominican .. and other.. inputs.
So, I think that I have been as fair as one can expect from any person.
I've wanted to reply to this thread for the past two days, but had been very busy with work. Maybe I'm wrong but it looks like you're trying to look for a justification for the massacres committed by Dessalines and his troops. Is true that the french troops where on this side of the island, but do your sources say that by 1804 many to not say most succumbed to various tropical diseases? while the remaining ones retreated to the capital, do you really think if they were French troops present in the border or even in Santiago they wouldn't have at least put a fight against Dessalines army? which marched to the capital with practically no resistance. I don't know if the authorization to capture any free blacks was given by the Frecnh, but if it was, I really doubt that any free blacks on the Haitian side or even on the eastern side where captured, for the simple reason that there wasn't any french troops in the border at the time, and no Dominican would be crazy enough to do this.
"Con este cambio feliz, sentimos el placer que promete la tranquilidad perdida hasta entonces, y ya libre de semejantes monstruos, nos entregamos todos a las diversiones y festejos p?blicos, tributando al Alt?simo en sus templos los m?s fervientes votos de gracias por el bien que nos acababa de dispensar, libr?ndonos de la garras de aquellos can?bales de quienes todo lo malo era de esperar. M?s ay! ?Cu?n ef?meras fueron nuestras glorias!
?Cu?n cortos los d?as de placer y de descanso! El clima, enemigo del europeo, dentro de poco, solo dejaba las reliquias de la tropa francesa.
La primera v?ctima fue el general de la armada Leclerc. Se sigui? su ayudante general, y casi todos sucumbieron al rigor del verano, sin quedarnos esperanza alguna de reposici?n. Los negros escapados y reunidos en aquellas inmensas lomas y dilatados bosques, conocieron que se les presentaba la oportunidad de alzar nuevamente el grito y volver a dominar la isla a poca costa. El negro Dessalines, furioso, vengativo y cruel por temperamento, supo recordar sus antiguos servicios prestados con la sangre de los blancos, en los millares de v?ctimas inmolados a su ferocidad en tiempo de su primitivo mando. Arm? como pudo su gente y vino desde el Guarico, ya apoderado de las dem?s fortalezas del tr?nsito para constituirse primer gefe del ej?rcito que titul? ind?geno."
Archivo OrbeQuince: Historia de mi salida de la isla de Santo Domingo el 28 de Abril de 1805 | Por Gaspar de Arredondo y Pichardo
Even if you don't speak Spanish try to understand the bold part.
Not to mention that when French ships tried to capture Haitian cities such as Guarico today known as Capt Haitie these were block by British ships, which impose a blockade on every Haitian port in favor of the Haitians.
The presence of the French troops outside the city of Santo Domingo was nonexistent, to the point that when this happened, Dessalines didn't loose time to request a ridiculous sum of money to all the eastern departments, or else they would be invaded by his troops, the sum of money was "cinco millones de libras" a sum he knew very well no town of the interior could pay, but this was just s pretext to invade.
Santiago sent two delegations to Cap Haitie to try to convince Dessalines that his demands could not be met, and the reasons why, they offered him cattle and other goods such as all their gold and silver jewelry instead, which he rejected, claiming that other towns had met his demands, which is ridiculous since no town if could have called them that back then, had more money than Santiago. BTW the author of the book was part of these two delegations sent, in part thanks to his French speaking skills.
"El cabildo o Consejo departamental, presidido por el mismo Ferrand, vi?ndose sin arbitrios ni recursos para salir del conflicto, y bien cierto, que si no la pag?bamos, tendr?an muy pronto encima la tropa negra para tomarlo todo por la fuerza, junto con nuestras personas, acord? enviar una diputaci?n cerca del general negro compuesta del presb?tero don Juan Pichardo (34), don Domingo P?rez Pichardo, primos hermanos, don Antonio Geraldino, Don Jos? Mendes, y yo, que hablaba el franc?s, y el mulato Jos? Tavares, el criollo; y a quien por su color hab?a nombrado Dessalines comandante de la plaza, para que pas?semos al Guarico, como lo hicimos al siguiente d?a, y le manifestamos la imposibilidad en que est?bamos de llenar en numerario la contribuci?n impuesta al departamento, fundados en las m?s que notorias razones que se han demostrado: que para acreditar nuestra obediencia y buena disposici?n a cumplir sus ?rdenes, enviar?amos ganados de todas clases, prendas de oro y plata y aun las alhajas de los templos hasta llenar la suma pedida. As? autorizados con nuestros competentes pasaportes, nos pusimos en camino dirigi?ndonos al pueblo de Bayaj?, para embarcarnos por all? al Guarico, corriendo el peligro que amenazaban aquellos parages por tierra, llenos de negros que sin reserva sin temor, asesinaban a todo blanco, seguros de toda responsabilidad."
Archivo OrbeQuince: Historia de mi salida de la isla de Santo Domingo el 28 de Abril de 1805 | Por Gaspar de Arredondo y Pichardo
To conclude:
"para ligar las manos a este y quedar dominando la isla, menos la capital, a beneficio de los nuevos y buenos medios de defensa, de que carecieron los dem?s pueblos internos."
Try to understand the quote above, pretty much the whole eastern side if the island except the capital, was abandoned by the French troops who either died or retreated behind the walls of Santo Domingo. Dessalines and his troops didn't really have an excused to butchered a people who had never done any harm to them, nor resisted them in any way.
