- Thread starter Tom F.
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Toussaint and Haitian Independence
As I ago through this he examines how the black and mixed race populations reacting to the whites during the different periods in the 1790's up until 1804. He argues Toussaint made sure the massacres of the white population was limited and compared to what the French did to themselves after the Revolution, what happened on Hispanola was a non-event. Now Napoleon.
That’s widely known, though more along the lines of Toussaint didn’t asked Napoleon permission to invade the eastern part and that was part of Napoleon’s suspicion on Toussaint given he was the ultimate authority in the entire French Empire.
The invasion of Toussaint also brings to light something else that several Dominican historians have pointed out. Haiti’s war of independence often is shown as it was a successful slave revolt, but Haiti’s independence is the product of the Haitian Revolution and technically not of the French Revolution (not directly, but indirectly.) It could be said the Haitian Revolution starts after the French capture Toussaint and send him in chains to France. Once Dessalines got hold of what happened, the hostilities intensified as the focus now was the actual French. It all started with Toussaint taking it upon himself a decision that wasn’t his to make. What was his true intention? Some say his hidden intention was to get control lf the entire island and then declare it independent of France.
There are two often overlooked points. Toussaint, a black man, became Governor of Saint-Domingue. How exactly a black man would become Governor if:
a| Slavery had not been abolished by then by the French.
b| The governorship position was reserved for actual Frenchmen from France who naturally all would had been white. The French eliminated the race restrictions too.
In essence, the legal end of slavery in Saint-Domingue and eliminating the color/racial bar from governorship, which was the highest government position in Saint-Domingue and after that the highest offices were in Paris, was actually done by the white people.
A similar situation exist in the United States. Who were the people that abolished slavery in various states and then nationally? The white people. Who ended racial segregation in the South? White… Why? They were the ones with an almost absolute power everywhere in the USA. Nothing could happen at the top level of governmrent if the white people didn’t decided it should.
This may not be liked by some that had some other idea, but this isn’t how anyone would had liked for it be, this is simply how it was.
Anyway, if the slave revolt lead to peace after the French liberated the slaves and eliminated the requirement for governorship, and what lead to Haiti’s independence was the arrest of Toussaint, how exactly is Haiti’s independence due to a slave revolt by the slaves themselves? The case could be made it had an indirect influence, but by all account the Haitians were free for quite a few years since before its independence.
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Then comes the notion that is often said regarding Toussaint’s invasion of the east in 1801.
1| If it wasn’t an invasion, why it consisted of thousands of troops that crossed through the north and the south to meet outside Santo Domingo? Not an invasion when there were some battles such as near the Sillón de la Viuda? This is one heck of a non-existent invasion.
2| Though Toussaint did it using the name and flag of France, why was Napoleon not happy that he did it and sent a full French military to arrest him and take charge of the Dominican part? Lip service from Toussaint’s part who had ulterior motives contrary to the interest of France at that time. This brings to notion that the 1801 invasion in reality was a Haitian invasion, the first of 8 major ones with the last one in 1856.
Why once news reached Toussaint in Haiti that the French troops had arrived in 1802 and all the towns in the east quickly rejected the Haitians he left in charge by supporting the newly arrived French troops? Isn’t Toussaint the highest authority in Saint-Domingue? His own French government turn on him for no reason?
Why once Toussaint got hold of that news, he ordered the slaughter of an entire regiment he took with him from Santo Domingo composed by Spaniards (Spanish troops in SD was a mixture of Iberian born and island born, in other words Spaniards and Dominicans) with their wives? Rhis wouldn’t make sense since upon Toussaint’s invasion of Santo Domingo, everyone was French. He ordered to kill his own countrymen or this is where the lip service comes to the surface again?
Plus, the Dominicans rejected the (“French”) Haitians but they united with the French, who supposedly Toussaint and all of them were one people. Unless…
This massacre was always mentioned rather quickly and not many other details were included. The first time I read “Racial Revolution: Eyewitness Accounts of the Haitian Insurrection” now over a decade ago, there is a chapter where parts of a letter are cited. I quickly noticed it was speaking of this slaughter. The French guy was an eyewitness so close that he witnessed when the order was given and the Santo Domingo troops were separate from the rest of the Haitians. They and their wives were stripped of their clothes and weapons and forced into a small building. The Haitian troops holding bayonets (a sort of rifle looking weapon with a sharp sword like object poking from the front that was used to pierce the victims and slaughter them to death) also entered the building and shut the door. Then from the outside he heard the screeching screams of the Santo Domingo troops and their wives and the Haitian troops screaming curse words at them as they attacked them with the bayonets.
The troops and their wives themselves had done nothing. They were simply the Santo Domingo troops and their wives that Toussaint took to the west after leaving the gates of the city of Santo Domingo. How interesting the news all the towns in the east quickly surrendered to the arriving French troops of Leclerc and Ferrand, all “Frenchmen” would get a reaction where it seems Toussaint said they were all French, but did he mean it?
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The other part pertains to the liberation of the slaves in Santo Domingo by Toussaint in 1801.
Usually, that is present as simply Toussaint liberated the slaves in Santo Domingo and that is that. What is never told is that the actual Dominican slaves were a minor part of the population of the east. Most Dominicans had been free for generations and many others since ever. Most also didn’t owned a single slave. For most, the day before the liberation and the day after was the same to the vast majority of the people. It didn’t affected them at all.
Of the minority that were Dominican slaves, the slavery of the Spanish side wasn’t as intense as the slavery in the French part or of any other colony of another European country. In pure number the slaves hardly existed in most places except in select places such as San Cridtóbal and vicinity where there was a concentration of plantations. The treatment received by most of Dominican slaves also was very mild, so mild slavery that in practice it was more like the current relationship many expats have with their housekeepers, gardeners, etc in the DR. The way many Haitians in the construction industry are treated where they are never whipped and such is pretty much how the slaves were treated in what ia now the Dominican Republic. This idea that the slaves functioned on being whipped and such was more common in other colonies such as France’s Saint-Domingo, England’s Jamaica or England’s Georgia or Carolina. If back then there were trucks as exist now where you’ll see groups of Haitians moved in the back of these trucks in places like Bávaro, that too is probably how the slaves would be taken back then. Very cheap labor.
To get an idea what slavery was like in Spanish America at this time and the other one later when Jean Pierre Boyer’s invasion took place in 1822, there are many eyewitness accounts. This one is convenient for being in English written by William Walton, who was in Santo Domingo for a while though I think he was from Kingston, Jamaica; at that time a English colony.
The entire chapter: Walton, Sam | Present State of the Spanish Colonies: Chapter XXI, Negro Slaves Pg 140 | 1810
To understand that ( despite that source is basically from a decade later, but there are many others from the 1700’s that basically say the same regarding slavery in the Spanish colonies) is to understand the context of the following.
This isn’t the first time I stumble on something about this, though this is the first one I noticed from before 1805.
This was found in a letter by the General Captain of Caracas (modern Venezuela) Manuel de Guevara Vasconcelos written on January 28, 1801 and regards none other than Toussaint Loverture and his invasion of Santo Domingo. Santo Domingo was under Toussaint’s control since mere days before and Dominican slavery had been abolished by him.
”It seems impossible that today’s slaves of the Spanish part [of Hispaniola] would conserve such conduct if it wasn‘t known what they say among themselves that they prefer to stay in their conditions as slaves than to be free and abuse their freedom with very bloody confrontation with the slave masters and the most horrible ingratitude towards the very distinguished men of the King who have done no wrong.”
That’s more or less what it says. Dominican slaves preferred to stay at peace with their Spanish masters than join the Haitians in what could be described mayhem, as they had seen from the Haitian troops themselves once they arrived.
The first letter: PARES | Archivos de España
This is actually seen in other sources such as Samuel Hazard’s 1871 “San Domingo Past and Present with a Glance at Haiti” which is based on his very extensive visit of the Dominican Republic and part of Haiti in 1869, to accompany the American Commission investigating all aspects of the country to create a report for Congress of the United States.
During Dessalines’ invasion in 1805.
Now think of the following and this is just me analyzing that part of the letter based on what I already know of that time.
a| The letter was written in 1801 mere days after Toussaint took over Santo Domingo. Dominicans were affected by the disturbances in the west (as the closest neighbors, it was the first colony of another country that noticed something was going on in the other side), in this case entirely due to the effect of the French Revolution in Saint-Domingue.
b| The arrival of the French troops from France was still a year away and the initiations of the revolt, this time of the Haitian Revolution that ended with the independence of Haiti, had not taken place yet.
c| While most of the massacres, especially against the French, took place after Dessalines rose up with the removal of Toussaint, there were some committed along with other abuses when the ideas of the French Revolution arrived at Cap François (Cap Haitian). It was later spread to the slaves by the French mulattoes (now Haitian mulattoes), because the French refused to allow the mixed men to be seen on equal footing with the whites. Initially that was the French mulattoes were after, nothing to do with the slaves yet. These were the educated types since most of them were in Paris getting a university education since it was a policy of France for al, its colonies everywhere in the world.
The point is that while the white and mixed Dominicans already feared the Haitians due to some of the French that managed to cross to the Spanish part, many lamenting the massacres of their entire families right in front of them (people talk and more so after going through a serious personal crisis and regardless what anyone does, to have their entire family killed right in front them is a personal crisis); the Dominican slave minority tended to also be disgusted with the Haitians for the same things.
Also keep in mind that in Spanish colonies Catholicism was greatly taught in the societies including the slaves and taken much more seriously. Often the ultimate worry was to live life in such a way to guarantee a passage to heaven once death arrived. All that killing and torture done by the liberated slaves of the French couldn’t had been seen with positive eyes even by the very religious Dominican slaves themselves. In fact, the Haitians due to those actions were seen are more barbarous people, nothing to do with the more civilized. It may seem that has been done with, but in this 2026 there are many Dominicans that see the Haitians exactly as that. The Haitians are Devil worshippers (because of voodoo which is widely practiced in Haitian society) uncivilized people where massacres are accepted and widespread that will turn the DR into the same mess if enough of them cross over. Notice some of the similarities between the times of the French and Haitian Revolutions over 200 years ago (massacres happening like its nothing just across the border) and today. Of course, the Dominicans are the ones that most know what it’s like to be the closest neighbor of Haiti in good times and in bad. In a way it’s comical when some people from North America or Europe (including those in offices at the UN in NYC thinking they know best regarding this) that they know what is best for Dominicans and Haitians when they hardly have any experience nor a history of being very close neighbors of Haiti. Dominicans are the ones with the generational experience that goes back over 200 years, basically for as long as there has been Haitians on the island.
The bottom line is Dominicans of all types have been rejecting Haitian rule for over 200 years and anyone that thinks otherwise is truly going against something that goes back generations. It isn’t something that was thought up yesterday or even during the Trujillo years, as some incorrectly assume.
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Lastly, here is something that actually points to the obvious that only the hardheaded decide to ignore.
Taking into account that when Haiti became independent in 1804, around half the Haitian population were actualAfricans, born and raised on that continent. Most of the other half were first generation born on the island, meaning most of them had African parents rather than parents of African descent. With simple arithmetic, the conclusion is that the vast majority of Haitians alive today in Haiti, outside of Haiti and descendants of Haitians outside of Haiti; the actual presence of most or all of their personal lineages has been on Hispaniola from 1750 and onward. Haitians that have lineages that go before 1750 have to be a small minority.
By contrast, in the same 1804, the lineages of most Dominicans had to be present on Hispaniola since way before the 1700’s. A testament to that are things like a large percentage of the African input in the typical Dominican DNA goes back to the Africans imported in the 1500’s by the Spanish. During that entire century the entire island was Spanish. That’s noted because the African allies in the DNA that has been the longest on the island are considerably shorter than more recent arrivals due to recombination of the DNA with every generation.
Spanish ancestry is too widespread among Dominicans and very rare among Haitians. Hispaniola has had Spaniards on a permanent basis with their share of the population fluctuating per century at least since 1493 which is the second voyage of Columbus. The first voyage left a small group in La Natividad in what now is Haiti, not one of them was still alive when Columbus returned the following years. Where did this first permanent Spaniards settled? They were the initial founders of La Isabels near Puerto Plata.
The entire island was fully under Spanish control on paper until 1697 with the Treaty of Basle. In reality until 1606 with Osorio’s Devastations when the western part of the island was forcibly depopulated by the Spanish authorities as an attempt to remedy the towns commerce dominated by contraband, trading with other colonies of other countries in violation of Spanish government prohibition and the discovery of several Protestant Bibles when everywhere in Spain the only religion allowed was Roman Catholicism.
Basically, Dominicans ended up losing the western part of the island due to corruption. If it wasn‘t for that, the devastations would had never been applied. In the end, corruption was the demise of the Dominicans along the western coast.
Indifference was the demise of the Dominicans in the Guaba Valley (now Hinche, Saint Michel, Saint Raphael, Lascahobas, etc in Haiti) as the Haitian population gradually penetrated and settled in the valley. The pacific nature made it seem as nothing to worry about to Dominicans. The fast multiplication of the Haitian population quickly outnumbered Dominicans. That valley was officially lost with the Border Treaty of 1929 done by President Horacio Vásquez with a Haiti still under American occupation (1915 - 1934). I have always seen that as suspicious. Dominicans were refusing to give those lands to Haiti, regardless of the demographic situation. But then, a pragmatism that is more telling of Americans than Dominicans, suddenly pops up at the tine when Haiti was under US military intervention. Is this another case of people from North America that think they know best for the Dominican-Haitian dilemma than the actual Dominicans who have been neighbors of Haiti “since ever”?
Supposedly, giving Dominican land that the Haitian government claimed was going to be the definite solution to Haitians flooding into Dominican territory, at that time mostly limited to the Guaba and La Miel valleys? Its 2026, what happen?
To put it simply, these people from outside the island since ever are the least indicated for Dominicans (and even Haitians) to take hints from om how to solve border issues. Not just those of NGO’s and other types on the island, also those in air conditioner offices in NY, Washington DC, Brussels, wherever not on Hispaniola.
Haiti itself has been turned into a bigger mess with things like the intervention of the USA on orders of Bill Clinton, the Haitian immigration in the DR has simply become out of control after years of following “advice” from the US and the European Union that puts conditions regarding this very same issue with every loan. This situation would had been better right now if Dominicans would had put ear plugs and simply do what they know needs to be done to slow down this massive immigration flow that is changing the DR.
Sorry, a little early. Not French control but to have treated the former colonizers humanly.
