1. From the first sentence, Toussaint Louverture explained that his goal was to “account” for his past conduct, a word he employed 14 times in the memoir. As indicated in the title, he wrote a “memoir” (a report), not “memoirs” (an autobiography).
2. Louverture had indeed worked hard to revive the plantation sector since 1800. “Cultivation, in the colony, was at a very high degree when we arrived;” see Victoire Leclerc to Denis Decrès (9 Feb. 1802), CC9B/19, Archives Nationales d’Outremer, Aix-en-Provence (ANOM). But Louverture was exaggerating when he claimed to have exceeded previous production records, since plantations had not yet fully recovered; see Pierre Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture (Paris: Fayard, 1989), 400–422.
3. Louverture’s self-congratulatory tone is found in some of his other letters. “I had found. . . the colony dismembered, ruined, torn apart, and occupied by the rebels, the émigrés, the Spaniards and the Englishmen that were fighting over its remnants; I now leave the colony tranquil, purged of its foreign enemies, pacified and on its way to its restoration;” see Louverture to Etienne Laveaux (24 Sept. 1798), in Gérard M. Laurent, ed., Toussaint l’Ouverture à travers sa correspondance, 1794–1798 ([s.n.], 1953), 451–454.
4. A commission was a group of envoys sent by France to represent its authority in the island. Louverture possibly referred to the decree by which the French agent Philippe Roume had ordered the capture of any British ship coming to a Dominguan port; see Philippe Roume, “Arrêté” (30 Aug. 1799), CC9B/9, ANOM.
5. Louverture likely referred to his decree of 3 April 1801 that put all colonial ports on high alert due to recent British raids; see Louverture, “Arrêté” (3 Apr. 1801), CO 137/105, British National Archives, Kew (BNA).
6. The squadron was part of an expedition sent by Bonaparte to unseat Louverture and perhaps restore slavery. Its first goal was the capture of Cap-Français or Le Cap (present-day Cap-Haïtien), the main commercial center on the northern coast. On the Leclerc expedition, see Philippe Girard, The Slaves Who Defeated Napoléon: Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian War of Independence (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2011). See the map for the location of Cap and other place names mentioned in the memoir.
7. Louverture had invaded the Spanish part of Hispaniola (present-day Dominican Republic) in January 1801. He had indeed tried to foster agriculture in this undeveloped province, but he omitted to mention in the memoir that the main purpose of his January 1802 visit to the city of Santo Domingo was to strengthen its defenses in the event of a French invasion. According to the French commander of Bany, “Toussaint told him during his latest trip 15 or 20 days ago that he was expecting the arrival of a French army and that he was determined to combat it, and in case of setbacks to retreat to Santo Domingo with all the troops he could muster;” see François-Marie Perichou de Kerversau to Leclerc (14 Feb. 1802), 61J24, Archives Départementales de la Gironde, Bordeaux (ADGir).
8. Louverture employed Jean-Jacques Dessalines (c. 1758–1806), a former slave of his son-in-law, as division general, trusted second, and inspector of cultivation in the West; see Philippe Girard, “Jean-Jacques Dessalines and the Atlantic System: A Reappraisal,” William and Mary Quarterly (July 2012), 549–582.
9. For an anguished letter sent from Santo Domingo that suggests that Louverture had just learned of the expedition’s arrival, see Louverture to Simon Baptiste fils (27 Jan. 1802), BB4 162, Service Historique de la Défense, Département de la Marine, Vincennes (SHD-DM). For a letter from his aide-de-camp indicating that Louverture was about to pass through Hinche, see Jean-Pierre Fontaine to Louverture (3 Feb. 1802), Ms. Hait. 66-115, Boston Public Library (BPL). For a claim that Louverture actually witnessed the arrival of the French fleet in Sámana, see Pamphile de Lacroix, Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de la révolution de Saint-Domingue, vol. 2 (Paris: Pillet, 1819), 63.
10. Marc Coupé was a squadron chief in Louverture’s army.
11. Brigadier General Henry Christophe (c. 1767–1820), a former enslaved innkeeper, commanded Cap-Français as of 1802; see Hubert Cole, Christophe, King of Haiti (New York: Viking Press, 1967).
12. This letter was not in the archives consulted for this book, but as of 2 Feb., Christophe knew of the squadron’s presence and was awaiting orders from Louverture; see Christophe to Louis Labelinais (2 Feb. 1802), 61J18, ADGir.
13. This officer was Lebrun, an aide-de-camp of Leclerc; see Hector Daure to Decrès (c. 3 Nov. 1802), B7/8, Service Historique de la Défense, Département de l’Armée de Terre, Vincennes (SHD-DAT).
14. Leclerc had merely sent Lebrun onshore with copies of Bonaparte’s 8 Nov. 1801 proclamation, which indeed failed to mention Louverture; see Leclerc to Decrès (9 Feb. 1802), CC9B/19, ANOM. That the proclamation did not mention Louverture’s name also shocked black officers in Port-Républicain; see Jean Boudet to Decrès (8 Feb. 1802), in “Extrait de la correspondance concernant Toussaint Louverture,” CC9/B23, ANOM. Speaking of “general Toussaint” (as opposed to “general Toussaint Louverture”) was an insulting reminder of his enslaved past; see also p. 14, line 3.
15. “I learn with indignation, citizen general, that you refuse to welcome the French squadron. . . under the pretext that you have no orders from the governor general.. . . I warn you that if, today, you don’t hand over Forts Picolet and Belair, and all the gun batteries of the coast, tomorrow at dawn 15,000 men will land;” see Leclerc to Christophe (2 Feb. 1802), in Christophe, “Manifeste du roi” (18 Sept. 1814), p. 20, Publications on the independence of Haiti, RG 59/MLR A1632, U.S. National Archives, College Park (NARA-CP). For Christophe’s response, see ibid., p. 21, and Christophe to Leclerc (2 Feb. 1802), in A. J. B. Bouvet de Cressé, ed., Histoire de la catastrophe de Saint-Domingue (Paris: Peytieux, 1824), 108.
16. After first notifying Louverture around 2 Feb., Christophe updated him on the 3rd: “the squadron is still near the port and I took all the possible dispositions to repulse an attack;” see Christophe to Louverture (3 Feb. 1802), Ms. Hait. 2548 (3), BPL. Louverture’s imminent arrival to Hinche in the midst of heavy rains is mentioned in Fontaine to Louverture (3 Feb. 1802), Ms. Hait. 66-115, BPL.
17. A naval squadron led by Gen. Jean Boudet passed by Saint-Marc on 2 Feb. 1802, reached Port-Républicain (formerly known as Port-au-Prince) on the 4th, and took it on the 5th after aborted negotiations. See Pamphile de Lacroix to Charles Dugua (8 Feb. 1802), B7/15, SHD-DAT.
18. This letter was not in the archives consulted for this book. Dessalines responded that he reached Croix-des-Bouquets, only to learn that Port-Républicain had already fallen to the French; see Dessalines to Louverture (6 Feb. 1802), Ms. Hait. 79-11, BPL. Louverture sent further orders to “try through force or ruse to burn this position.. . . What a shame that your and my orders were not implemented!” See Louverture to Dessalines (8 Feb. 1802), in Beaubrun Ardouin, Etudes sur l’histoire d’Haïti, vol. 5 (Paris: Dezobry and Magdeleine, 1854), 39.
19. Identifying place names in the memoir can be difficult since Louverture and his secretary Jeannin consistently misspelled them and many referred to a lieu-dit, a small location known only to locals. This place name is listed as “les Vases” in Joseph Saint-Rémy, Mémoires du général Toussaint-L’Ouverture écrits par lui-même (Paris: Pagnerre, 1853), 35, but it was more likely Le Vaseux, northwest of Dondon.
20. Grand-Boucan is in the region of Plaine-du-Nord, just southwest of Cap-Français.
21. Louverture is careful here and on p. 3, line 8, to point out that he arrived just after (and thus was not responsible for) the burning of Cap. His contemporary letters are ambiguous on the matter. “I was still in Hinche when news [of the fleet’s arrival in Cap] reached me. I hastened to go to this town. I arrived a bit late, the enemy had already landed their troops. But they only found ashes;” see Louverture to Paul Louverture (6 Feb. 1802), 61J24, ADGir. Many contemporaries insisted that Louverture was present in Cap and masterminded all events behind the scenes, including the fire; see Dugua to Alexandre Berthier (8 Feb. 1802), B7/2, SHD-DAT; Louis-Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse to Decrès (10 Feb. 1802), in “Extrait de la correspondance concernant Toussaint Louverture,” CC9/B23, ANOM; Edward Stevens to John Marshall (28 Feb. 1802), 208 MI/2, Archives Nationales, Paris (AN); Lacroix, Mémoires, vol. 2, 70.
22. The term “habitant” means “inhabitant” in French, but also “planters” in Saint-Domingue. Christophe had sent one thousand white civilians to Haut-du-Cap, apparently to have them massacred, but they instead headed for the Morne de la Vigie (a hill above Cap), then returned to Cap safely after the French took the town; see “Délibérations de l’administration municipale du Cap” (5 Feb. 1802), in Moniteur Universel, no. 212 (22 Apr. 1802).
23. After the failure of his negotiations with Christophe, Leclerc landed his troops at the Limbé dock, west of Cap, on 4–5 February. Meanwhile, Admiral Villaret bombed the forts that defended Cap on the 5th (Belair and Picolet), and then forced his way into the harbor on the 6th.
24. Fort Belair, located just southwest of Cap-Français on the way to Haut-du-Cap, was one of several forts defending the town. The others were Fort Picolet (to the north) and Fort St. Michel (to the southeast).
25. Probably the hospital of Les Pères in Haut-du-Cap. The other hospital of Cap, La Providence, was in the town itself.
26. Louverture was actually pleased with the destruction of Cap, which was consistent with his scorched-earth strategy. “A large squadron has reached Cap and made landings, but the town was thoroughly burned.. . . It seems that we face a coalition against liberty, so no half-measures;” see Louverture to Augustin Clerveaux (6 Feb. 1802), 61J24, ADGir.
27. While in Cap, Lebrun had distributed a proclamation from Bonaparte to the people of Saint-Domingue that read: “The government is sending Captain General Leclerc. He brings with him great forces to protect you from your enemies and the enemies of the Republic. If you are told ‘these forces have come to steal your liberty,’ answer ‘the Republic gave us our liberty and will not allow it to be taken from us;’ ” see Napoléon Bonaparte, “Proclamation du Consul” (8 Nov. 1801), F/3/202, FM, ANOM. Leclerc later issued a proclamation under his own name that also promised that he would not restore slavery; see Leclerc to the citizens of Saint-Domingue (8 Feb. 1802), CC9B/19, ANOM. The proclamations had a great impact, so to counter their influence, Louverture ordered printing presses sent to him; see Louverture to Bartalier (15 Feb. 1802), Sc. Micro R-2228 Reel 5, Schomburg Center, New York Public Library (SC-NYPL).
28. The commander of La Bouque was a black officer named Barthélémy; see Saint-Rémy, Mémoires, 36. The fort of La Bouque defended the channel leading to the city of Fort-Liberté (formerly Fort-Dauphin).
29. Fort-Liberté was taken on 3 Feb. by troops under Gen. Donatien de Rochambeau who indeed massacred the garrison to punish it for resuming the fight after surrendering; see Deseine and Courtois, “Mon premier voyage sur mer. . .” (c. 1809), p. 23–26, Sc. Micro R-2228 Reel 9, SC-NYPL.
30. Bonaparte had ordered Leclerc to land in Acul, a logical spot just west of Cap, but he actually landed further west at the Limbé dock; see Leclerc to Decrès (9 Feb. 1802), CC9B/19, ANOM.
31. Louverture’s suspicions were correct: Leclerc’s orders were indeed to employ negotiation if possible, but Leclerc was quick to resort to Bonaparte’s “plan B,” force, to make a name for himself; see Bonaparte, “Notes pour servir aux instructions à donner au capitaine général Leclerc” (31 Oct. 1801), in Paul Roussier, ed., Lettres du général Leclerc (Paris: Société de l’histoire des colonies françaises, 1937), 263–274.
32. The Breda plantation in Haut-du-Cap was the plantation on which Louverture was born and where he lived until the outbreak of the 1791 slave revolt. The Boulard plantation was in nearby Plaine-du-Nord.
33. Bonnet-à-l’Evêque was a mountain where Christophe had hidden ammunition, and where he later built the famous Laferrière citadel; see Saint-Rémy, Mémoires, 37.
34. Like the neighboring Breda du Haut-du-Cap plantation, the Héricourt plantation belonged to members of the Breda family. It was in Plaine-du-Nord. Louverture was leasing it as of 1802; see Jean-Louis Donnadieu, Un grand seigneur et ses esclaves: Le comte de Noé entre Antilles et Gascogne, 1728–1816 (Toulouse, FR: Presses Universitaires du Mirail, 2009), 33, 39.
35. Jean-Pierre Fontaine was an aide-de-camp of Louverture; see Ardouin, Etudes, vol. 5, 177.
36. The general was Jean Hardÿ, who reported encountering “a few hundred negroes, mulattoes, and whites mixed together, commanded by Toussaint Louverture in person;” see Hardÿ to Mrs. Hardÿ (8 Feb. 1802), in Hardÿ de Périni, Correspondance intime du général Jean Hardÿ de 1798 à 1802 (Paris: Plon, 1901), 265.
37. Vaudreuil was halfway between Haut-du-Cap and Plaine-du-Nord. The Vaudreuil family was a prominent family of absentee planters; see Comte de Vaudreuil to Elizabeth Foster (23 Apr. 1794), in Léonce Pingaud, ed., Correspondance intime du Comte de Vaudreuil et du Comte d’Artois pendant l’émigration, 1789–1815, vol. 2 (Paris: Plon, 1889), 200.
38. Strangely, Louverture did not mention other massacres of troops of color that took place during the campaign; see for example, R. Mends to John Duckworth (1 Apr. 1802), ADM 1/252, BNA.
39. Rochambeau’s letter to Louverture and the latter’s response were not in the archives consulted for this book. In his contemporary correspondence, Louverture was very concerned that the French had come to restore slavery, but he rarely mentioned these fears in his memoir, probably to avoid denouncing Bonaparte as an enemy of liberty; see, for example, “We cannot hide: die or live free,” in Louverture to Clerveaux (6 Feb. 1802), 61J24, ADGir. Note that Louverture’s stated willingness to die to defend his liberty is reminiscent of the motto “liberty or death” that was embraced by Dominguan rebels as their rallying cry.
40. Louverture had actually decided from the outset that he would not allow a French takeover. “The enemy will soon appear near your coast, use all your forces to prevent a landing,” he wrote one general. If you have to retreat, “set the town on fire; you will also burn all the plantations you will encounter, and you will be careful not to let anything behind you that belongs to the white race;” see Louverture to Clerveaux (c. 30 Jan. 1802), in Guillaume Mauviel, “Mémoire sur Saint-Domingue” (26 June 1805), p. 40, pièce 101, AF/IV/1212, AN. For Louverture’s early orders, see also Paul Louverture to Louverture (3 Feb. 1802), Sc. Micro R-2228 Reel 5, SC-NYPL; Leclerc to Decrès (9 Feb. 1802), CC9B/19, ANOM; Gingembre Trop Fort to Casimir (15 Feb. 1802), B7/2, SHD-DAT; Leclerc to Bonaparte (5 March 1802), B7/26, SHD-DAT.
41. Brigadier General Jacques Maurepas was the black commander of Port-de-Paix.
42. Maurepas mentioned receiving five letters from Louverture between 31 Jan. and 7 Feb. They must have instructed him to prepare his defenses, because he reported back that he had armed his men and stood ready to fight for liberty; see Maurepas to Louverture (6 and 8 Feb. 1802), 61J18, ADGir. Maurepas twice repulsed a French assault, then retreated after burning Port-de-Paix and inflicting heavy casualties on the French.
43. Louverture occasionally employed Port-au-Prince’s old royalist name, which had been abandoned in favor of Port-Républicain during the Revolution; see also p. 10, line 43, and p. 20, line 12.
44. Jean-Philippe Dupin was a black officer who had massacred partisans of André Rigaud in Port-Républicain during the War of the South; see Ardouin, Etudes, vol. 4, 109.
45. Brigadier General Paul Louverture was Toussaint Louverture’s brother and the commander of the city of Santo Domingo. He had written on 3 Feb. to inform Louverture of the arrival of a fleet, then twice again on the 4th to ask urgently for orders. See Paul Louverture to Louverture (3 and 4 Feb. 1802), Sc. Micro R-2228 Reel 5, SC-NYPL.
46. “roiale sa Bale” in manuscript C referred to Oyarzábal, a cattle ranch near the mouth of the Nigua River, just southwest of Santo Domingo; see Saint-Rémy, Mémoires, 41.
47. No French troops had actually landed, but Spanish civilians captured a fort in Santo Domingo on 8 Feb., on which day the French came close to land; see Paul Louverture to Kerversau (9 Feb. 1802) and Kerversau to Leclerc (13 Feb. 1802), 61J24, ADGir.
48. Louverture knew Brigadier General François-Marie Perichou de Kerversau, who had served as French agent in Santo Domingo before returning to France in 1801 and urging Bonaparte to intervene against Louverture.
49. On the negotiations, see the many letters between Kerversau and Paul Louverture in 61J24, ADGir and Sc. Micro R-2228 Reel 5, SC-NYPL.
50. For orders to resist a French landing, see Louverture to Paul Louverture (6 Feb. 1802), 61J24, ADGir.
51. For the letter in which Louverture pretended to authorize his brother to let French troops land, see Louverture to Paul Louverture (9 Feb. 1802), 61J24, ADGir.
52. This is the first of four accusations of racial discrimination in the memoir (see also p. 15, lines 40 and 57, and p. 16, line 51). Kerversau mentioned intercepting Paul Louverture’s couriers, but not killing them; see Kerversau to Leclerc (7 and 17 Feb. 1802), 61J24, ADGir.
53. Paul Louverture made his submission on 21 Feb. in exchange for a promise that slavery would not be restored; see Paul Louverture to Leclerc (21 Feb. 1802), Box 1Ad./7, Rochambeau Paper, University of Florida in Gainesville (RP-UF). Louverture omitted to mention that his brother’s lack of resoluteness also facilitated the French takeover of Santo Domingo.
54. Brigadier General André Vernet was the husband of Louverture’s niece Justine Eléonore Chancy. As of 1802, he was commander of the Louverture region near Gonaïves; see Pierre Bardin, “Langlois de Chancy-Toussaint Louverture,” Généalogie et Histoire de la Caraïbe, no. 92 (Apr. 1997), 1944–1947.
55. This is the first mention of Louverture’s second wife Suzanne and his sons Placide and Isaac Louverture, who had been studying in Paris since 1796 under their tutor Jean-Baptiste Coisnon. Leclerc traveled to Saint-Domingue with them and sent them to Louverture c. 9 Feb.; see Leclerc to Bonaparte (9 Feb. 1802), B7/26, SHD-DAT. His sons’ arrival in Ennery fulfilled Louverture’s two wishes: to see his sons and to receive a personal letter from the first consul. “I again ask you for the return of my children,” he had written. “I already had the honor of writing several letters to you but I have not had the joy of receiving a response from you;” see Louverture to Bonaparte (16 July 1801), Dossier 1, AF/IV/1213, AN.
56. Louverture’s account of the meeting with his sons is consistent with Coisnon to Leclerc (11 Feb. 1802), 61J18, ADGir; Coisnon to Decrès (20 Feb. 1802), in Moniteur Universel no. 212 (22 Apr. 1802); Antoine Métral, Histoire de l’expédition des Français à Saint-Domingue sous le consulat de Napoléon Bonaparte, suivie des mémoires et notes d’Isaac l’Ouverture (Paris: Ainé and Renouard, 1825), 239.
57. One suspects that Louverture, who did not read well, was too proud to labor through the letter in front of his sons’ teacher. In the letter, Bonaparte promised “consideration, honor, fortune” to Louverture if he subjected to Leclerc’s authority; see Bonaparte to Louverture (18 Nov. 1801), in Jean-Baptiste Vaillant, ed., Correspondance de Napoléon Ier, publiée par ordre de l’empereur Napoléon III, vol. 7 (Paris: Plon, 1858), 410.
58. Captain General Victoire Emmanuel Leclerc (1772–1802), the husband of Bonaparte’s sister Pauline, had been entrusted with the command of the expedition to Saint-Domingue; see Henri Mézière, Le Général Leclerc et l’expédition de Saint-Domingue (Paris: Tallandier, 1990). It is very unlikely that Louverture still did not know Leclerc’s name a week after meeting Christophe near Cap. To make his claim more credible, Louverture referred to Leclerc as “the general commanding the squadron” in the early part of the memoir, slipping only once (p. 2, line 10).
59. Bonaparte had met Isaac and Placide before their departure from France to assure them of his good intentions toward their father; see Métral, Mémoires et notes d’Isaac l’Ouverture, 229–231.
60. Louverture was right to doubt the sincerity of Leclerc, who was expecting to launch military operations within four or five days even as he sent Louverture’s sons to Ennery; see Leclerc to Bonaparte (9 Feb. 1802), B7/26, SHD-DAT.
61. The D manuscript referred to “citizen” Coisnon, which Louverture changed to “mister” in keeping with the pre-Revolutionary habit of referring to whites as “sieur” (see also Valtière, p. 20, line 29, and Espinville, p. 21, line 6). In contrast, people of color had traditionally been listed as “le nommé,” a derogatory term that Louverture used when mentioning his black enemy Golart (p. 9, line 48). On Louverture’s use of antiquated forms of address, see also Lacroix, Mémoires, vol. 1, 401.
62. Small dispatch ship.
63. According to Isaac Louverture, he and Placide were supposed to arrive two weeks before the main fleet, but Leclerc learned in Sámana that Louverture was in Santo Domingo and opted to attack Cap at once; see Métral, Mémoires et notes d’Isaac l’Ouverture, 232.
64. Granville, a teacher in nearby Gonaïves, was the tutor of Louverture’s youngest son Saint-Jean.
65. In the letter, Louverture reproached Leclerc for “having come to overthrow him with cannonballs” and announced that “he needed time to make a decision;” see Lacroix, Mémoires, vol. 2, 124.
66. On 12 Feb., the French were preparing a naval attack on Saint-Marc scheduled for the 16th; see Lacroix to Bruyère (12 Feb. 1802), B7/15, SHD-DAT. Also on the 12th, Dessalines asked Louverture to come meet him in Saint-Marc because he had “plenty of things to tell you;” see Dessalines to Louverture (12 Feb. 1802), Sc. Micro R-2228 Reel 4, SC-NYPL. Louverture was in Saint-Marc as of the 15th; see Louverture to Bartalier (15 Feb. 1802), Sc. Micro R-2228 Reel 5, SC-NYPL.
67. In his letter, Leclerc invited Louverture to come to Cap, proposed to maintain him in his rank if he surrendered, promised not to restore slavery, announced that forces had been sent to all ports of the colony, and offered not to attack with his troops in Cap for four days; see Leclerc to Louverture (12 Feb. 1802), B7/26, SHD-DAT. Leclerc was certain that the negotiations would fail and planned to launch an all-out campaign on 17 Feb.; see Leclerc to Decrès (15 Feb. 1802), CC9B/19, ANOM.
68. Leclerc, who had spent his entire life in Europe, was indeed poorly informed about Saint-Domingue’s politics and geography, which Louverture was pleased to underline in his memoir.
69. On 19 Feb., Maurepas reported that Bartalier, the commander of Môle Saint-Nicolas, had surrendered to a single French frigate, and that nearby Jean-Rabel and Bombarde had surrendered too; see Maurepas to Louverture (19 Feb. 1802), 61J18, ADGir.
70. Louverture’s regular army was estimated at over 20,000 men; see Lacroix, Mémoires, vol. 2, 65. He had expanded it by mobilizing additional men on the eve of Leclerc’s arrival so, even when accounting for defections, it is unlikely that he had no men with him by mid-February. He later said he had “few” troops (see p. 7, line 27).
71. This second set of letters was not in the archives consulted for this book.
72. Leclerc attacked on 17 Feb. The Desfourneaux division took Limbé (17th), Plaisance (19th). The Hardÿ division took Grand Boucan (17th), Dondon (18th), Marmelade (19th). The Rochambeau division took La Tannerie (17th), Saint-Raphaël (18th), Saint-Michel (19th); see Leclerc to Decrès (27 Feb. 1802), CC9B/19, ANOM. Ennery and Gonaïves, their next targets, were in the heart of the region that Louverture had captured from the Spanish and the British in the 1790s, where he had acquired many plantations, and which he had recently named after himself.
73. It is unlikely that Louverture had such a naïve view of Bonaparte’s intentions, but he was careful throughout the memoir to flatter the first consul.
74. These are the whereabouts of Louverture according to the testimony of one of his guides, Barade. “On 2 ventôse [21 Feb.] Toussaint was camped on the Cocherel plantation. . . . On the 4th he was chased and retreated via Gonaïves to the plain of the Artibonite, where he successively stayed at various plantations, spending only a few hours on each of them before setting it on fire and leaving. On the 11th (2 March) he went to Bayonnais, recently abandoned by troops of the Republic, and burned it. On the 12th he passed by Ennery, which he burned. He then went to Marmelade, taking all cultivators with him. . . . On the morning of the 14th he left Marmelade [with troops]. He ordered an attack on Plaisance and marched with the left column, which was attacked and beaten on the evening of the 14th;” see Thouvenot to Dugua (28 March 1802), Dossier 2, AF/IV/1213, AN.
75. Bayonnet (or Bayonnais) was a strong position on Louverture’s right flank near Ravine-à-Couleuvre; see Saint-Rémy, Mémoires, 48. According to Leclerc, Christophe retreated to the “Bayonnais plantation” on 21 Feb. after being chased from Ennery by Gen. Hardÿ, only to be attacked by Gen. Jean-Baptiste Salme and forced to retreat again; see Leclerc to Decrès (27 Feb. 1802), CC9B/19, ANOM.
76. French troops took Plaisance, Ennery, and the Bayonnais plantation on 21 Feb., Gonaïves and Ravine-à-Couleuvres on 23 Feb., Saint-Marc on 25 Feb., and Gros-Morne on 26 Feb., before heading back to Gonaïves to attack Louverture; see Leclerc to Decrès (27 Feb. 1802), CC9B/19, ANOM.
77. The Couleuvre was a mountainous area crossed by a river that passed by the La Croix plantation. The ensuing battle, mentioned in the memoir as the “affair of La Croix,” is now known as the battle of Ravine-à-Couleuvre.
78. According to a white planter who was present in Gonaïves, Louverture gathered all local whites and told them “in a loud, rumbling voice while rolling his ferocious eyes” that he would destroy the planters, then sent them on to the town of Petite-Rivière; see Michel-Etienne Descourtilz, Voyage d’un naturaliste et ses observations, vol. 3 (Paris: Dufart, 1809), 288.
79. Leclerc’s account was the mirror opposite of Louverture’s: Louverture entrenched himself in the Ravine-à-Couleuvre with 4,100 regular troops and 2,000 armed cultivators, but was forced to retreat to Petite-Rivière after a hard-fought battle with Gen. Rochambeau on 23 Feb.; see Leclerc to Decrès (27 Feb. 1802), B7/26, SHD-DAT.
80. Dessalines burned the town of Saint-Marc before 24 Feb., when he was pushed out of the city by Gen. Jean Boudet; see Lacroix to Dugua (1 March 1802), B7/15, SHD-DAT.
81. One letter mentioned Louverture’s orders that all prisoners taken in the region be sent to him; see Claude Martin to Figeac (23 Feb. 1802), Sc. Micro R-2228 Reel 1, SC-NYPL.
82. The mountain chains of Grand Cahos and Petit Cahos (Spanish: Las Caobas) were a formidable obstacle. “I have never seen anything comparable in the Alps,” reported Leclerc. See Leclerc to Decrès (27 Feb. 1802), CC9B/19, ANOM.
83. A later report by Dessalines indicates that he was pushed out of the Cahos mountains, but had time to collect hidden ammunition stores and rescue the wives of Dessalines and Louverture; see Dessalines to Louverture (12 March 1802), Sc. Micro R-2228 Reel 4, SC-NYPL.
84. In his memoir, Louverture occasionally exaggerated his military role even though it made his legal situation more difficult. It was actually Dessalines who decided to fortify the fort of Crête-à-Pierrot, located on a hill near Petite-Rivière. “My desire to preserve this advantageous position convinced me to take the necessary measures. I immediately placed some of my troops in the fort and two battalions of the 4th demi-brigade on a nearby hill;” see Dessalines to Louverture (1 March 1802), Sc. Micro R-2228 Reel 4, SC-NYPL.
85. According to an account of the siege of Crête-à-Pierrot that is occasionally biased toward Dessalines, Louverture actually took troops from, rather than gave troops to, Etienne Magny, a brigadier chief in Louverture’s honor guard; see Louis Boisrond-Tonnerre, “Mémoire pour servir à l’histoire d’Hayti” (22 June 1804), p. 13, CC9B/27, ANOM.
86. Vernet’s presence in Crête-à-Pierrot is mentioned in Thouvenot to Dugua (16 March 1802), Dossier 2, AF/IV/1213, AN. Louverture probably wanted to protect Vernet because he was married to his niece.
87. During the 1799–1800 War of the South, Louverture had been surprised by rebellions in the northwest and almost lost the war. His experience probably inspired this maneuver.
88. Louis Vaillant-Gabart (1776–1805) and Michel Pourcely (?–1807) were two mixed-race officers; see Daniel Desormeaux, ed., Mémoires du général Toussaint Louverture (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2011), 114.
89. The proclamation declared that Louverture and Christophe were outlaws (and thus could be killed with impunity), that colonial soldiers refusing to join Leclerc would be viewed as rebels, and that cultivators assisting the revolt would be “treated like wayward children and sent back to cultivation;” see Leclerc, “Proclamation aux habitants de Saint-Domingue” (17 Feb. 1802), CC9B/19, ANOM.
90. The proclamation cited and countered every point of Louverture’s 17 Feb. proclamation and declared that Leclerc, Rochambeau, Kerversau, and Edmé-Etienne Desfourneaux were outlaws; see Louverture, “Proclamation” (1 March 1802), in St. Rémy, Mémoires, 109–119.
91. The letter mentioned by Louverture was possibly Dessalines to Louverture (12 March 1802), Sc. Micro R-2228 Reel 4, SC-NYPL. See also Dessalines to Louverture (14 and 18 March 1802), in Jacques de Cauna, ed., Toussaint Louverture et l’indépendance d’Haïti (Paris: Karthala, 2004), 14.
92. On the treasure, see Isaac Louverture to M. de Saint-Anthoine (30 Apr. 1847), NAF 12409, BNF; Girard, The Slaves Who Defeated Napoleon, 107-109.
93. “All is well here, the enemy attacked us, but we forced them to retreat and inflicted losses;” see Magny to Louverture (8 March 1802), Sc. Micro R-2228 Reel 5, SC-NYPL.
94. After a first attack on 4 March 1802 by the French generals Jean-François Debelle and Pierre Devaux, Leclerc, Boudet, and Dugua launched on 11 March a second and equally unsuccessful assault; see Dugua to Berthier (26 March 1802), B7/3, SHD-DAT.
95. Bedouret (or Bidouret) was a plantation near Plaisance.
96. Troops of the line were heavy infantry trained for pitched battles.
97. A guide of Louverture gave a far less glorious account. On the morning of 5 March, Louverture left Marmelade with two demi-brigades and various corps. “He ordered an attack on Plaisance and marched with the left column, which was attacked and beaten on the evening of the 14th.. . . During the retreat, someone said to a member of the honor guard ‘my friends all is lost the governor was injured in his shoulder;’ ” see Thouvenot to Dugua (28 March 1802), Dossier 2, AF/IV/1213, AN. On Louverture’s defeat in Plaisance, see also “Ordre du jour de la division Desfourneaux” (6 March 1802), B7/2, SHD-DAT.
98. After Paul Louverture’s submission in Santo Domingo, Kerversau sent troops to seal off the border with Saint-Domingue to prevent rebels from fleeing to the Spanish part; see Kerversau to Leclerc (7 and 14 March 1802), 61J24, ADGir.
99. Attacked by several French columns, Maurepas had already capitulated on 26 Feb.; see Leclerc to Decrès (27 Feb. 1802), CC9B/19, ANOM; Lacroix, Mémoires, vol. 2, 135.
100. This letter was not in the archives consulted for this book. Other letters indicate that Dessalines fell sick and left Crête-à-Pierrot between 18 and 30 March; see Dessalines to Louverture (18 March 1802), in Cauna, Toussaint Louverture et l’indépendance d’Haïti, 14; Dessalines to Louverture (30 March and 4 Apr. 1802), Sc. Micro R-2228 Reel 4, SC-NYPL.
101. “This single day cost us 600 dead or wounded, including at least 50 officers. It was the toughest fight in my life;” in Leclerc to Decrès (26 March 1802), 416AP/1, AN; “Crête-à-Pierrot, where there were only 1,000 to 1,200 men left, had already cost us 1,500 men” in Lacroix, Mémoires, vol. 2, 165.
102. Leclerc learned through spies that “Toussaint Louverture was to attack that night. . . at the same time the garrison would make a sortie from the fort;” see Lacroix, Mémoires, vol. 2, 168.
103. Short on water, the garrison slipped out on 24 March. “The retreat conceived and executed by the commander of Crête-à-Pierrot was a remarkable feat. We surrounded his post with more than 12,000 men; he fled, only lost half his garrison, and only left us with his dead and wounded;” see Lacroix, Mémoires, vol. 2, 170.
104. Louverture had deported several French rivals in this manner, including Sonthonax (1796), Hédouville (1798), and Roume (1801).
105. Contrary to his denegation, Louverture obliquely incited his subordinates to kill whites. “Beware of whites: they will betray you if they can.. . . As a result I give you carte blanche: all that you do will be a good thing;” see Louverture to Dommage (9 Feb. 1802), in Ardouin, Etudes, vol. 5, 40. “Make sure not to leave behind you anything that may have a white skin;” see Louverture to Clerveaux (c. 30 Jan. 1802), in Mauviel, “Mémoire sur Saint-Domingue” (26 June 1805), p. 40, pièce 101, AF/IV/1212, AN. Leclerc estimated that “more than 10,000 white, black, or mulatto inhabitants” were killed on orders from Louverture and others; see Leclerc to Decrès (26 March 1802), 416AP/1, AN.
106. On Dessalines’s orders, Léogane’s commander Jean-Louis Diane had burned the city on 11 Feb. when the French had attacked it; see “Récit succint des événements arrivés à Léogane et Jacmel” (4–15 Feb. 1802), Box 3/114-115, RP-UF.
107. Leclerc had declared that Louverture “only saw the word ‘liberty,’ which he employed so often, as a means to achieve the most absolute despotism in Saint-Domingue;” see Leclerc, “Proclamation aux habitants de Saint-Domingue” (17 Feb. 1802), CC9B/19, ANOM.
108. In this important passage, Louverture justified his labor policies in terms nearly identical to those he had employed in 1800–1801. “We must devote our attention to the prosperity of Saint-Domingue, to public tranquility, and thus to the happiness of all our fellow citizens.. . . To ensure liberty, without which no man can be happy, all must be gainfully employed so as to cooperate to the public good and to general tranquility;” see Louverture, [Règlement des cultures] (12 Oct. 1800), in Ardouin, Etudes, vol. 4, 247–255.
109. Lubin Golart was the black commander of Jean-Rabel. Opposed to Louverture’s policy of conciliation with England and émigrés, he had embraced André Rigaud’s side during the War of the South, been defeated by Louverture, retreated to the mountains, and then joined Leclerc’s side after the French landing. Note that Louverture used the expression “the person named” before Golart’s name, which was used to describe people of color prior to the Revolution, whereas he used the respectful “mister” when referring to Coisnon and Bondère, who were white (p. 5, line 49, and p. 10, line 4).
110. Brigadier General Augustin Clerveaux had served with Louverture since 1793. He had handed over Santiago to the French without a fight, yet Louverture seemed not to begrudge him in his memoir for ignoring his orders.
111. Lamour Derance was a bossale (African-born) leader of runaway cultivators opposed to Louverture’s labor regulations. Like Golart, he had supported Rigaud during the War of the South, fled to the woods after Rigaud’s defeat, then come out of hiding to join the French after the landing. He was later killed by Dessalines during a dispute over the command of the rebel army; see Ardouin, Etudes, vol. 4, 336, and vol. 5, 416.
112. “When going from Port-au-Prince to the Spanish part [before the French landing], [Louverture] seemed to want to try an attack on the Maniel, which is the refuge of the blacks with whom the former [colonial] government had to sign a treaty;” see Allier to Leclerc (8 Feb. 1802), in “Extrait de la correspondance concernant Toussaint Louverture,” CC9/B23, ANOM.
113. Upon first learning that an expedition was on its way to Saint-Domingue, Louverture also complained about the “ungratefulness” of a French government that wanted to remove him from office even though he had defended the colony from foreign invaders and revived the plantations; see Louverture to Members of the Assemblée Centrale de la colonie (22 Jan. 1802), Sc. Micro R-2228 Reel 5, SC-NYPL.
114. Louverture claimed that he submitted because of his loyalty to France, but he actually called for a ceasefire at a time when his military situation had become particularly bleak because many of his subordinates had switched sides; see “Etat nominatif des chefs de la colonie qui se sont soumis aux lois de la République Française” (c. March 1802), B7/2, SHD-DAT; Girard, The Slaves Who Defeated Napoleon, 134.
115. It is highly unlikely that Louverture had not found the time in two months to draft a letter.
116. Louverture was about twice the age of Leclerc (60 against 30), which partly explains his instinctive hostility toward the young upstart.
117. A dragoon was a mounted infantryman.
118. Brigadier Chief Pascal Sabès and Midshipman Jean-Baptiste Gémont had been sent on shore to negotiate the takeover of Port-Républicain in Feb. 1802, only to be taken captive by the rebels; see Jean-Baptiste Gémont, Précis des événemens arrivés à la députation envoyée par le général Boudet au Port-au-Prince, lors de la descente des Français à Saint-Domingue (Pluviôse an X) ([s.n.], 1806), 212830/C610, Bibliothèque Municipale de Nantes.
119. Louverture’s letters to Boudet and Leclerc were not in the archives consulted for this book, but they are mentioned in a dispatch by Leclerc. “Twenty times [Sabès and Gémont] were threatened with death. They witnessed all the massacres that took place, and on the 8th [29 March 1802] General Toussaint asked them to come. After talking at length with citizen Sabès, the aide-de-camp of General Boudet, and complaining about the ungratefulness of the French government. . . he charged him with a letter to General Boudet and another to General Bonaparte. In the letter to General Boudet, he bitterly complained about our conduct toward him. In the letter to the First Consul, he accused me of being the cause of all the woes of the colony, insisted on his obedience to the Republic, and asked for someone to be sent to replace me;” see Leclerc to Decrès (1 Apr. 1802), CC9B/19, ANOM. “General Leclerc does not want, despite the good dispositions of the government, to deal with me because I am Black;” see Louverture to Boudet (11 Apr. 1802), cited in Desormeaux, Mémoires, 122.
120. “General Hardÿ surrounded 600 blacks in Coupe-à-l’Inde. They were not spared because they still had on their bayonets the blood of 100 whites they had just killed;” see Lacroix, Mémoires, vol. 2, 150.
121. Louverture also mentioned “his favorite horses, which he particularly valued” when meeting Marie-François Caffarelli in Joux; see “Toussaint Louverture au Fort de Joux” (c. 17 Sept. 1802), in Nouvelle Revue Rétrospective, no. 94 (10 Apr. 1902), 14. “Toussaint Louverture had superb, extremely fast horses on the main plantations. It was his only luxury;” see Lacroix, Mémoires, vol. 1, 407. “When reviewing troops, he would mount his horse Bel Argent or Symétrie so close to the lines of soldiers that new recruits would fear for their toes;” see Isaac Louverture, “Notes historiques sur Toussaint Louverture, manuscrit d’Isaac Louverture, notes intéressantes sur Banica etc.” (c. 1819), NAF 12409, BNF.
122. Concerned for the safety of Cap, Leclerc had ordered the Hardÿ division to march from Crête-à-Pierrot back to Cap. On its way, it was attacked by Louverture and Christophe near Dondon and Marmelade and lost 400 men. “In the nine years I have been waging war as a general. . . I never saw as cruel an action as this one;” see Hardÿ to Leclerc (2 Apr. 1802), Box 3/173, RP-UF.
123. Dessalines was in Marchand, a plantation on the plain of the Artibonite, from 9 Apr. to the end of the campaign; see Dessalines to Louverture (9 Apr. 1802), Sc. Micro R-2228 Reel 4, SC-NYPL. After Haiti’s independence, Dessalines fortified Marchand extensively and made it his emergency capital.
124. Early in the campaign, Louverture had sent his nephew and aide-de-camp Bernard Chancy to the South to order local commanders to revolt, but he had been arrested on the way; see Nérette to Boudet (18 Feb. 1802), Ms. Hait. 66-184, BPL. “I ordered General Boudet to send back to him one of his nephews, who is his aide-de-camp and had been caught while carrying dispatches. I ordered him to write him a rather vague letter to allow [Louverture] to make overtures, should he want to surrender;” see Leclerc to Decrès (1 Apr. 1802), CC9B/19, ANOM.
125. Instead of handing over his command to Boudet, as Louverture had hoped, Leclerc sent him to the French island of Guadeloupe; see Leclerc to Boudet (19 Apr. 1802), Box 4/261, RP-UF.
126. Chancy was deported to France in 1802. Held in Corsica, he returned to Haiti, only to kill himself on Dessalines’s orders; see Francis Arzalier, “Déportés haïtiens et guadeloupéens en Corse (1802–1814),” Annales historiques de la Révolution française (1993), 293–294, 479, 486.
127. “Abandon this errant and vagabond life that would dishonor you if you continued it any longer;” see Vilton to Christophe (11 Apr. 1802), in Christophe, “Manifeste du roi,” p. 34. Hardÿ promised that the French would not restore slavery because “we have been fighting for liberty for twelve years” and offered to meet on the Vaudreuil plantation; see Hardÿ to Christophe (15 Apr. 1802), in “Manifeste du roi,” p. 28.
128. Leclerc sent several letters. Christophe may not have shown Louverture one in which Leclerc asked him to kidnap Louverture. “If you intend to surrender to the Republic, you would do us a great service by giving us the means to seize the person of General Toussaint;” see Leclerc to Christophe (14 Apr. 1802), in “Manifeste du roi,” p. 22. In the memoir, Louverture was probably referring instead to the letter in which Leclerc promised not to restore slavery and asked Christophe to come meet him in Cap; see Leclerc to Christophe (24 Apr. 1802), in “Manifeste du roi,” p. 25.
129. Like Louverture, Leclerc was eager to negotiate because of the losses sustained during the spring campaign. “The rainy season has arrived. My troops are overwhelmed with fatigue and diseases;” see Leclerc to Decrès (9 Apr. 1802), CC9B/19, ANOM.
130. Christophe agreed to surrender when he met Leclerc in Cap on 26 April and Leclerc promised not to restore slavery, but Louverture was still not aware of his subordinate’s betrayal as of the 28th; see Christophe to Leclerc (25 Apr. 1802), in Christophe, “Manifeste du roi,” p. 26; Leclerc, “Le général en chef ordonne” (26 Apr. 1802), Box 4/281, RP-UF; Louverture to Christophe (28 Apr. 1802) 61J18, ADGir.
131. “Any rebel general who wants to negotiate should give his troops away and wait for me to decide on his fate. Toussaint offered me to go meet him on the Héricourt plantation, promising me safety and protection. I responded to this impertinent proposal in the appropriate manner;” see Leclerc to Rochambeau (30 Apr. 1802), lot 215, Vente Rochambeau, Philippe Rouillac auction house (VR-PR).
132. The 29 Apr. meeting between Leclerc and Fontaine is mentioned in Achille Dampierre to Pierre Thouvenot (30 Apr. 1802), B7/3, SHD-DAT.
133. Louverture’s secretary and interpreter “was an Israelite named Nathan who knew all the languages of Europe. Nathan was a landowner in Cayes, where he had once been a merchant;” see Isaac Louverture, “Notes historiques sur Toussaint Louverture,” 74.
134. The date of 7 pluviôse (27 Jan. 1802) is a mistake. Louverture was actually referring to the 28 pluviôse proclamation that had made him an outlaw; see Leclerc, “Proclamation aux habitants de Saint-Domingue” (17 Feb. 1802), CC9B/19, ANOM. The proclamation was publically rescinded in Gazette du Port-Républicain, no. 66 (16 May 1802), CO 137/108, BNA.
135. After seizing power on 18 brumaire year VIII (9 Nov. 1799), Bonaparte had followed a policy of reconciliation toward counterrevolutionary émigrés.
136. The passage cites, almost word for word, a document that Louverture had either memorized or kept with him; see Leclerc to Louverture (3 [1?] May 1802), in Roussier, Lettres du général Leclerc, 132–133. In keeping with the rest of the memoir, which skirts the issue of emancipation, Louverture did not mention that in order to secure Christophe’s submission, Louverture had publically promised “liberty and equality for all the inhabitants of Saint-Domingue, of any color;” see Leclerc to Inhabitants of Saint-Domingue (25 Apr. 1802), Box 4/277, RP-UF.
137. Bonaparte had actually asked that all black officers be deported to France, which explains why Leclerc was negotiating in bad faith. “All rebel chiefs have made their submission. If I am not executing your instructions yet, it is because the right time has not come;” see Leclerc to Bonaparte (7 May 1802), in Roussier, Lettres du général Leclerc, 145. There are multiple accounts of Louverture’s visit to Cap on 6 May, all of which emphasize the antipathy of the white population of Cap toward the former governor and the continued distrust between Leclerc and Louverture; see, for example, Pierre Benezech to Decrès (7 May 1802), CC9B/20, ANOM.
138. “Toussaint tried to surrender. He made proposals to me, which led to him coming to see me in Cap. It seems that his troops no longer wished to fight, and that there was a rift between him and Dessalines. I had ordered him to bring Dessalines with him. He responded that he was afraid of being deported and that he was sick, which is true, but that he would obey any order I would give him.. . . [Louverture] will retire to one of his plantations, from which he will not be able to leave without my authorization;” see Leclerc to Rochambeau (7 May 1802), lot 215, VR-PR. For longer transcripts of the conversation, see Jacques de Norvins, Souvenirs d’un historien de Napoléon: mémorial de J. de Norvins vol. 2 (Paris: Plon, 1896), 395–396; Métral, Mémoires et notes d’Isaac l’Ouverture, 287–290.
139. Brigadier General Charles Belair was Louverture’s nephew. The French had tried to get him to defect since early April, but unsuccessfully; see Belair to Rochambeau (4 Apr. 1802), Sc. Micro R-2228 Reel 1, SC-NYPL.
140. According to Leclerc, Louverture asked to remain in active service, which Leclerc refused; see Leclerc to Decrès (6 May 1802), CC9B/19, ANOM.
141. Louverture knew Gen. Philibert Fressinet, who had served in Saint-Domingue previously, most notably during the March 1796 Villatte incident; see Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 122–129.
142. The letter from Leclerc to Louverture was not in the archives consulted for this book. The letter to Dessalines delineated the area under his command and placed him under the French general Rochambeau; see Leclerc to Dessalines (7 May 1802), Ms. Hait. 66-159, BPL.
143. Dessalines was indeed eager to continue fighting. “My heart is disgusted at the thought of starting negotiations with the enemy.. . . The first person who hesitates or dares to make observations will serve as an example to the rest of the army;” see Dessalines to Louverture (5 May 1802), Folder 23C, Kurt Fisher Collection, Howard University, Washington, DC (KFC-HU). He backed down after receiving orders from Louverture. “I only know obedience.. . . I have always thought it my duty to obey oral and written orders;” see Dessalines to Leclerc (12 May 1802), Sc. Micro R-2228 Reel 4, SC-NYPL.
144. To anxious cultivators from Ennery, Louverture responded not to worry because “all your brothers are still under arms, and the officers have all kept their rank;” see Métral, Mémoires et notes d’Isaac l’Ouverture, 295.
145. “In the presence of adjutant-commandant Perrin, I gathered all the officers of the National Guard under my orders, as well as cultivators, to reassure them. . . that your intentions were pure regarding liberty;” see Dessalines to Leclerc (12 May 1802), Sc. Micro R-2228 Reel 4, SC-NYPL. Perrin died of yellow fever in early June.
146. Belair was actually re-integrated into the French army, only to revolt once more in Aug. 1802 and be executed. Note that Louverture was unaware that Belair and Dessalines were denouncing him to the French at the time. According to a French general, “I had dinner with those two gentlemen, mellowed them, and made them chat. They say that they do not like Toussaint much.. . . In the end Dessalines opened his heart to me and told me that Toussaint had only used him as a workhorse;” see Jean-Baptiste Brunet to Rochambeau (20 May 1802), lot 224, VR-PR.
147. After the end of the campaign, Leclerc encouraged cultivators to resume working under the cultivator system designed by Louverture, but popular resistance was strong. One of the persons most concerned about the surrender was a black commander from the area of Ennery named Sylla: “Since you were planning to surrender, why then did you put weapons in my hands to defend myself? Many people want riches, but I desire my liberty;” see Sylla to Vernet (c. 25 Apr. 1802), 61J18, ADGir.
148. These two letters were not in the archives consulted for this book. The “orders” probably referred to the proclamation asking cultivators to return to their plantations under the army’s supervision; see Leclerc “Proclamation aux habitants de Saint-Domingue” (12 May 1802), CC9/B22, ANOM.
149. Leclerc had asked Rochambeau, who commanded the western province, to “keep a particularly close watch on Mr. Toussaint, Dessalines, and all the posse;” see Leclerc to Rochambeau (16 May 1802), lot 215, VR-PR. Rochambeau delegated this task to General Jean-Baptiste Brunet, who commanded the area of Gonaïves. Brunet’s subordinate in Ennery, Battalion Chief Pesquidous (or Pesquidoux, d’Esquidoux) was to spy on Louverture while Battalion Chief Margeret did the same with Dessalines in Saint-Marc; see Andrieu to Brunet (c. 14 May 1802), BN08268/lot 1, RP-UF.
150. Laurent Désir was commander of Marmelade; see Hardÿ to Bertrand Clauzel (14 May 1802), B7/4, SHD-DAT.
151. Jean-Pierre Dumesnil was commander of Plaisance; see “Etat nominatif des chefs de la colonie qui se sont soumis aux lois de la République Française” (c. March 1802), B7/2, SHD-DAT.
152. Suzanne Louverture had spent the spring campaign on the Vincidière plantation in the Cahos Mountains. She moved to the Sancey plantation in the hills above Ennery after the ceasefire, while Louverture moved to the Descahaux plantation nearby. He later moved again to the Beaumont plantation, immediately near the village of Ennery; see Saint-Rémy, Mémoires, 73.
153. Pesquidous, who had been sent with an entire battalion to Ennery, was to report on Louverture’s every move and to treat him with “deference” but also “circumspection;” see Andrieu to Pesquidous (14 May 1802), BN08268/lot 1, RP-UF.
154. A goddaughter of Louverture is mentioned in “Acte de baptême” (19 Jan. 1784), 1DPPC 2324, ANOM; there were probably others.
155. According to a coded transcript of this conversation (or the previous day’s), Louverture complained that “[The general in chief had not told me] that they would put [a garrison here]. I would only get 25 [men]. I was told you [have] 700, I won’t hide from you [I am suspicious; my wife is] still in the [woods she was supposed to] return home these days; I cannot make [her] come today. [My] cultivators had begun to work, now they have fled. I lost everything, my belongings were stolen;” see Pesquidous to Brunet (20 May 1802), 135AP/6, AN.
156. The French were growing suspicious because Dessalines accused Louverture of inciting Sylla to reject the recent ceasefire; see Dessalines to Leclerc (22 May 1802), Sc. Micro R-2228 Reel 4, SC-NYPL. Pesquidous was also almost killed in a suspicious fire in Ennery; see Pesquidoux to Brunet (26 May 1802), 135AP/6, AN.
157. Louverture referred to Placide as his son, even though he was actually Suzanne’s child from a previous union; see Thomas Gragnon-Lacoste, Toussaint Louverture (Paris: Durand, 1877), 15.
158. Division General Charles Dugua was Leclerc’s chief of staff. He died of yellow fever in Oct. 1802.
159. Louverture agreed to a ceasefire in Cap on 6 May 1802 and then left for Ennery the following day. He was arrested on 7 June.
160. The account by Brunet (the French commander of Gonaïves) of his conversation with Louverture actually emphasized his disloyalty. Louverture allegedly said that “if people continued to bother him, he would flee to the woods and fight again for his liberty, he even repeated several times this threat.. . . For a man who so desires tranquility, he seldom rests, he is always on the go and I still don’t know for sure on which plantation he has established his residence.. . . Spite could be seen beneath a veil of hypocrisy, and I believe he is willing to act on his threats;” see Brunet to Rochambeau (26 May 1802), lot 224, VR-PR.
161. These letters were not in the archives consulted for this book, but Brunet mentioned them in another dispatch. “I sent to General Toussaint the proclamation of the general in chief dated 22 floréal [12 May]; I am attaching a copy of his response;” see Brunet to Rochambeau (26 May 1802), lot 224, VR-PR.
162. On Isaac’s mission to Cap, see Métral, Mémoires et notes d’Isaac l’Ouverture, 298.
163. “For the past two days he seems in deep thoughts.. . . He says he heard from Cap that he would soon be arrested with all his partisans;” see Brunet to Rochambeau (26 May 1802), lot 224, VR-PR. This was the second warning that Louverture ignored (see also p. 13, line 31). On Louverture’s premonitions, see also Descourtiz, Voyages, vol. 3, 186; Métral, Mémoires et notes d’Isaac l’Ouverture, 302.
164. The memoir reproduced word for word letters from Leclerc to Louverture on 5 June and from Brunet to Louverture on 7 June (another letter from Pesquidous to Louverture on 7 June was reproduced in manuscript D but was omitted in manuscript C). Louverture had the originals of the three letters with him during his captivity until he had to hand them over during a search of his cell; see Baille to Decrès (18 Nov. 1802), CC9B/18, ANOM.
165. The two officers were Squadron Chief César and Placide Louverture; see Saint-Rémy, Mémoires, 80.
166. This description of a homebound, matronly Suzanne Louverture is consistent with an account of the Louvertures’ domestic life in Moniteur Universel (9 Jan. 1799).
167. In reality, “since the 14th [3 June] I had orders [from Leclerc] to nab him;” see Brunet to Rochambeau (8 June 1802) lot 224, VR-PR.
168. Leclerc’s aide-de-camp was Squadron Chief Ferrari; see Brunet to Leclerc (19 June 1802), Box 2:4, John Kobler/ Haitian Revolution Collection, MG 140, SC-NYPL.
169. According to Brunet’s version of Louverture’s arrest, “Toussaint was arrested in my home last night at 9:30 with a battalion chief and a servant.. . . My officers behaved admirably, with the greatest calm, and at a glance seized the ex-governor. At the same time in a nearby room they seized the battalion chief and Toussaint’s servant; the former tried to resist and grabbed a dagger, but the rifleman on guard disarmed him with his bayonet;” see Brunet to Rochambeau (8 June 1802) lot 224, VR-PR.
170. The aide-de-camp of Brunet was Battalion Chief Hypolite Grandsaigne; see Grandsaigne to Brunet (12 Sept. 1802), B7/7, SHD-DAT; Saint-Rémy, Mémoires, 82.
171. A portugaise was a Brazilian gold coin worth 11 Spanish piastres or 66 French Caribbean livres; see [Du Simitière?], “Des manières de compter et des monnayes des Isles du Vent et sous le Vent” (c. 1758), 968.F.2, Du Simitière Collection, Library Company of Philadelphia.
172. Presumably Louverture’s niece Louise Chancy, who was deported with him.
173. According to another account by Louverture, the day after his arrest “Commandant Pesquidoux came to my plantation with 100 riflemen . . . . From there my house was attacked from all sides; they shot at the women and men who fled to the woods; my papers were seized; 75 portugaises were taken by the aide-de-camp that General Brunet had sent to Ennery, and my linen was looted. Then they went to look for my spouse: commander Pesquidoux behaved well toward her and treated her with all the attentions owed to her sex;” see Louverture to Leclerc (18 July 1802), Folder 3C, KFC-HU. For Isaac Louverture’s account of French depradations, see Métral, Mémoires et notes d’Isaac l’Ouverture, 304–307. According to Brunet’s account, “the ex-governor, his wife, his two sons, the chiefs of his guards Morisset and Maupoin and his closest accomplices are in our hands . . . . No less important was the capture of the correspondence and all the papers of Toussaint . . . . I ordered that Mrs. Toussaint and the women be treated with all the attentions owed to their sex; nothing was taken from them, money, jewels, linen, belongings;” see Brunet to Rochambeau (10 June 1802), lot 224, VR-PR. A decree by Leclerc stated that all of Louverture’s assets would be confiscated; see Leclerc, “Arrêté” (13 June 1802), Dossier 1, EE1734, ANOM.
174. This letter was not in the archives consulted for this book.
175. Louverture did not mention in his memoir the famous quote that is usually attributed to him. “He was led to Gonaïves and taken aboard the Héros: it is there that he told Division Chief Savari, the captain of this vessel, these memorable words: ‘By toppling me, you have only struck down in Saint-Domingue the trunk of the tree of the liberty of the blacks; it will grow back from its roots, because they are deep and numerous;’ ” see Lacroix, Mémoires, vol. 2, 203–204.
176. Louverture was deported with his wife Suzanne, his sons Placide, Isaac, and Saint-Jean, his nieces Louise Chancy and Victorine Tussac, and two servants, Mars Plaisir and Justine; see Auguste Nemours, Histoire de la famille et de la descendance de Toussaint Louverture (Port-au-Prince, HT: Imprimerie de l’Etat, 1941), 27.
177. Instead of dining at the officers’ table, Louverture was put “among the seamen, allowing him no other rations but such as the ship’s crew;” see W. L. Whitfield to Nugent (26 July 1802), CO 137/108, BNA. Louverture was kept incommunicado and could not talk to his own children; see Philippe d’Auvergne to Robert Hobart (2 Aug. 1802), WO 1/924, BNA.
178. Louverture left Cap around 12 June and reached Brest around 14 July, dates that are consistent with Louverture’s account of a fast 32-day crossing of the Atlantic; see Leclerc to Decrès (11 June 1802), CC9B/19, ANOM; Decrès to Berthier (15 July 1802), CC9/B24, ANOM. Louverture probably included both the time spent crossing the Atlantic and the time spent waiting in Brest when claiming that he spent 67 days on board, since he disembarked on 13 Aug.; see Joseph Caffarelli to Decrès (13 Aug. 1802), in Victor Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint Louverture (Paris: Ollendorf, 1889), 351.
179. This sentence ends Louverture’s account of the Leclerc expedition and opens the less orderly second section, in which he covered a variety of topics in a more lively tone.
180. Louverture had not followed this procedure when deporting rivals like Sonthonax (1796), Hédouville (1798), and Roume (1801); but he had not deported them as prisoners.
181. This complaint about racial discrimination, the third in the memoir, was likely based on Othello’s comment in act I, scene 5 in a French translation by Jean-François Ducis (whose brother lived in Saint-Domingue). “Does the color of my face demean my courage?;” see Jean-François Ducis, Œuvres, vol. 2 (Paris: Nepveu, 1813), 160, 174.
182. Protecting his family was Louverture’s abiding concern from the moment he arrived in Brest. “A 53-year-old mother deserves the indulgence of a generous and liberal nation. She has no account to give. I am solely responsible for my conduct;” see Louverture to Bonaparte (20 July 1802), Dossier 1, AF/IV/1213, AN. “If I faltered in my duty, I alone must be responsible for my conduct before the government;” see Louverture to Leclerc (18 July 1802), Folder 3C, KFC-HU. Louverture’s son Placide had actually served with his father during the campaign.
183. Like French officers of his time, Louverture liked to make references to classical antiquity. Instead of Spartacus, the rebel slave to whom he was usually compared, Louverture chose in his memoir to invoke Hannibal, the valorous victim of European imperialism run amok. On Louverture’s library (which contained works on ancient history), see Marcus Rainsford, An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti (London: Albion Press, 1805), 244.
184. On the capture of Louverture’s papers in Port-Républicain and Ennery, see Brunet to Rochambeau (10 June 1802), lot 224, VR-PR; Lacroix, Mémoires, vol. 2, 104.
185. Much to the French government’s exasperation, most of the people deported from Saint-Domingue in 1802, including Louverture, were not accompanied by documentary evidence. The government accordingly prepared a dossier summarizing Louverture’s faults; see “Rapport aux consuls concernant Toussaint Louverture” (23 July 1802), CC9/B23, ANOM.
186. This is the first mention in the memoir of Louverture’s ultimate goal: a public trial (see also p. 17, line 32, p. 18, line 55, p. 21, line 28). But the French government eventually decided to hold Louverture without trial because Leclerc feared that “in the current situation his trial and execution would only sour the spirit of the blacks;” see Leclerc to Decrès (26 Sept. 1802), Box 12/1098, RP-UF.
187. Desormeaux, Mémoires, 142, claims that the metaphor was inspired by Marie-François Caffarelli, but it was Caffarelli’s brother who was one-legged.
188. This is the first of three instances in the memoir in which Louverture mentioned his lack of education, which clearly bothered him (see also p. 19, line 33, and p. 21, line 22).
189. Note the divine references on p. 16, lines 21, 23, and 29.
190. Louverture referred to his successful war against Spain and Britain in 1793–1798, which he had conducted with minimal material assistance from France. For obvious reasons, he hid his diplomatic ties to Britain and the United States in ensuing years, which could be seen as treasonous.
191. Until the spring of 1801, Bonaparte had actually thought of using Louverture as a strategic ally, only to change his mind and send an expedition (which he regretted later); see Philippe Girard, “Napoléon Bonaparte and the Emancipation Issue in Saint-Domingue, 1799–1803,” French Historical Studies 32:4 (Fall 2009), 587–618.
192. As Louverture probably understood, Bonaparte had sent an expedition precisely because the London peace preliminaries of Oct. 1801 had left him free to ship a fleet past the British navy.
193. Louverture referred to the constitution he presented to the public on 7 July 1801 and that enraged Bonaparte when he learned of its content in October 1801. To Caffarelli, Louverture admitted “yes it is true I made a mistake, but my intentions were pure;” see “Toussaint Louverture au Fort de Joux,” 10.
194. Contrary to the Directory’s 1795 constitution, which stated that colonies were within the French legal sphere, Bonaparte’s 1799 constitution had stated that they would be governed by later, unspecified clauses. It is this legal vacuum, widely seen as a first step toward a restoration of slavery, that the 1801 constitution was intended to address.
195. Louverture summoned a constitutional assembly in a 5 Feb. 1801 proclamation; see Louverture to Pierre Forfait (12 Feb. 1801), 61J18, ADGir; Ardouin, Etudes, vol. 4, 314.
196. The deputies were Bernard Borgella and Etienne Viart (from the West), Julien Raimond and Jean-Baptiste Lacourt (North), Philippe Collet and Gaston Nogerée (South), and four deputies from Santo Domingo who played a limited role (Juan Monceybo, Francis Morillas, Carlos Roxas, André Mugnoz). For Louverture’s instructions to the delegates, see “Extrait des registres de l’Assemblée centrale de Saint-Domingue” (28 March 1801), CO 137/106, BNA.
197. Art. 77 allowed Louverture to provisionally implement the constitution until he received France’s approval.
198. Louverture referred to the constitutional delegate Gaston Nogerée, whom he sent to France in Sept. 1801 with a letter to Bonaparte. Louverture had actually sent Charles Humbert de Vincent a month earlier with a copy of the constitution, but Louverture likely preferred not to mention his name because he had heard that Vincent had criticized his conduct; see Nogérée to Louverture (17 Oct. 1801), Box 1:5, John Kobler/Haitian Revolution Collection, MG 140, SC-NYPL.
199. Louverture used the same analogy in a 1798 letter: “de homme pour leur interé particulier. . . veul fer pacé lé mal pour le bien et le bien pour mal, on faite pacé les tenebre pour la lumier et la lumier, pour les tenebre;” see Louverture to Hédouville (c. 1798), AF/III, 210, AN. This was likely a reference to Genesis 4 (“God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness”) or Isaiah 5:20 (“Woe to those. . . who put darkness for light and light for darkness”).
200. On 6 May 1802, while Louverture and Leclerc were discussing a ceasefire in Cap, Leclerc allegedly “confessed that the pilots embarked near Sámana had assured him that Toussaint Louverture was in Santo Domingo;” see Métral, Mémoires et notes d’Isaac l’Ouverture, 289. Leclerc’s account does not mention this piece of intelligence; see Leclerc to Decrès (9 Feb. 1802), CC9B/19, ANOM.
201. Throughout the manuscript, Louverture used terms like “Frenchman,” “colony,” and “motherland” to reject accusations that he was on a path to independence; see also, for example, p. 16, line 40.
202. Louverture occasionally used the parent-child bond as an analogy for the colonial bond; see Louverture, “Proclamation” (20 Dec. 1801), in Nugent to Hobart (19 Jan. 1802), CO 137/106, BNA.
203. This sentence marks the beginning of the memoir’s third section, in which Louverture retraced his record prior to 1802.
204. Louverture switched from the Spanish to the French army around May 1794.
205. L. L. Smith, the scion of a family of planters, became paymaster in Cayes in 1800 and died in Oct. 1802; see Desormeaux, Mémoires, 148.
206. The mixed-race general André Rigaud commanded the southern province until Louverture defeated him in the 1799–1800 War of the South and captured the southern capital of Cayes in August 1800. Rigaud returned to Saint-Domingue with the Leclerc expedition, only to be deported by Leclerc back to France.
207. A French general indeed reported finding “millions” in Cayes; see Lacroix to Dugua (15 Feb. 1802), B7/15, SHD-DAT. Leclerc also mentioned finding one million in Santo Domingo; see Leclerc to Bonaparte (1 Apr. 1802), B7/26, SHD-DAT. Embezzlement was endemic in the French officer corps, so many other finds went unreported.
208. Louverture’s ambitions were both financial and political. He enriched himself considerably during the Revolution by using his political clout to lease public lands, but he also longed for recognition, particularly from Bonaparte; see Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 352, 425.
209. This is the only instance in the memoir in which Louverture mentions his past enslavement. On his life as a slave, see Jean-Louis Donnadieu and Philippe Girard, “Toussaint Before Louverture: New Archival Findings on the Early Life of Toussaint Louverture,” William and Mary Quarterly 70:1 (Jan. 2013).
210. Louverture referred to his 1794 switch from the Spanish army to the French army, which helped Etienne Laveaux, the governor of Saint-Domingue, defeat a joint British and Spanish invasion. The reference to “40,000 men armed with pikes” is less clear. Perhaps Louverture gave an inflated account of the forces at his disposal, generally estimated at 4,000 soldiers, or perhaps he was referring to armed cultivators and other irregular troops; see David Geggus, “The ‘Volte-Face’ of Toussaint Louverture,” in Geggus, Haitian Revolutionary Studies (Blacks in the Diaspora) (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2002), 119–136.
211. Division General Edmé-Etienne Desfourneaux had spent much of the 1790s as a French envoy in Saint-Domingue and Guadeloupe; he served in the Leclerc expedition until Leclerc deported him in Aug. 1802.
212. Louverture fought many battles against the English in the neighborhood of Verrettes, so authors disagree on whether this anecdote referred to a battle fought in Dec. 1794, Aug. 1795, or 1797; see Desormeaux, Mémoires, 151. The most likely candidate was a March 1797 campaign related in Louverture, “Procès Verbal de l’expédition . . . sur le Mirebalais et sa descendance” (9 Apr. 1797), 61J18, ADGir.
213. Louverture was understandably eager to emphasize his proud military record against the Spanish and the British, which would likely please Bonaparte and allowed him to relive his past.
214. Louverture had “no teeth on his upper jaw; the lower one juts forward and is lined with long, salient teeth;” see “Toussaint Louverture au Fort de Joux,” 1. Louverture had several of his remaining teeth pulled out during his captivity; see Baille to Decrès (18 Oct. 1802), TL-2B3a, Nemours Collection, University of Puerto Rico.
215. Laveaux was the only one of several French envoys to Saint-Domingue who left the island on good terms with Louverture, which explains why he cited him repeatedly as a character witness in the memoir. “As for me, my friend, I can never repeat enough that I love you for life;” see Laveaux to Louverture (29 Dec. 1799), Sc. Micro R-2228 Reel 1, SC-NYPL.
216. Louverture’s claim that he was worth 648,000 francs at the outbreak of the Revolution is puzzling since documents indicate that he only became rich during the course of the Revolution; see Gabriel Debien, “Les biens de Toussaint Louverture,” Revue de la Société Haïtienne d’Histoire et de Géographie, no. 139 (June 1983), 5–75; Donnadieu and Girard, “Toussaint Before Louverture.” When pressed by Caffarelli on the matter, Louverture backtracked, saying that “I have never been rich in cash.. . . My wife was rich;” see “Toussaint Louverture au Fort de Joux,” 12. Perhaps Louverture, who referred to the “revolution of 10 August 1790 [1792]” in another letter, did not use the Aug. 1791 slave revolt as the starting point of the Revolution but rather Louis XVIII’s overthrow a year later; see Louverture to Bonaparte (9 Oct. 1802), Dossier 1, AF/IV/1213, AN.
217. “Toussaint, the most unhappy man of men! /. .. Though fallen thyself, never to rise again, / Live, and take comfort;” poem by William Wordsworth in Red-Letter Poems by English Men and Women (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1884), 287–288. According to a guard in Joux, “the poor man thought of his country, his children! He had so much sorrow;” see J. F. Dubois to [abbé?] Grégoire (25 May 1823), NAF 6864, BNF.
218. In captivity, Louverture also mentioned “my father who is currently blind;” see Louverture to Bonaparte (9 Oct. 1802), Dossier 1, AF/IV/1213, AN. Louverture’s biological father had died in 1774; see François Bayon de Libertat to Pantaléon II de Breda (30 Apr. 1774), Dossier 12, 18AP/3, AN. According to Isaac, “the 105 years old elder mentioned in the manuscript of Joux attributed to my father is the virtuous Pierre Baptiste his godfather;” see Isaac Louverture to M. de Saint-Anthoine (8 March 1842), NAF 6864, BNF.
219. Suzanne Louverture was allowed to live with her sons and other relatives in Agen, where she died in 1816; see Nemours, Histoire de la famille, 240.
220. According to a French general who met Louverture as he passed through Tours, Louverture was convinced that he was on his way to defend himself before Bonaparte in Paris; see Fernand Clamettes, ed., Mémoires du général Baron Thiébault, vol. 3 (Paris: Plon, 1893–1895), 301, 303.
221. The letter mentioned here was a letter to Louverture’s aide-de-camp Fontaine dated 27 May 1802, in which he plotted a new uprising for the summer of 1802; it was described as genuine in Leclerc to Decrès (11 June 1802), CC9B/19, ANOM. Louverture was supposed to cross France in an enclosed carriage but evidently managed to obtain some information on the way; see Berthier, “Rapport fait au premier consul” (1 Aug. 1802), B7/6, SHD-DAT. The “public papers” referred either to the Gazette officielle de Saint-Domingue (23 June 1802) or more likely the Gazette des Débats (29 July 1802), both of which reproduced the letter to Fontaine.
222. Manuscript A ends with this appeal. The addendum that constitutes the memoir’s fourth and final section was added in the B and D versions and considerably expanded in the C version.
223. Leclerc ordered 50 supporters of Louverture deported to Corsica and 20 to Cayenne in the aftermath of Louverture’s arrest; see Leclerc to Decrès (11 June 1802), B7/26, SHD-DAT. The group sent to Corsica on the frigate Muiron included Louverture’s aide-de-camp Fontaine, to whom he had sent his infamous 27 May 1802 letter, and Gingembre Trop Fort, who had been cited in it; see “Etat des officiers, soldats, et individus quelconques partant pour France sur l’escadre du contre-amiral Magon” (6 June 1802), Box 6/464, RP-UF. The other group arrived in Guyana in Aug. 1802; see Jean Destrem, Les déportations du consulat et de l’empire (d’après des documents inédits) (Paris: Jeanmaire, 1885), 279.
224. Contrary to his earlier stance on the burning of Cap (p. 3, line 7) and civilian massacres (p. 9, line 21), Louverture courageously took full responsibility for his subordinates’ actions.
225. Placide Louverture was sent to captivity in Belle-Ile while the rest of the family was placed under house arrest in Agen; see Berthier to Decrès (26 July 1802), B7/5, SHD-DAT.
226. “This ambitious man has never ceased to conspire since being pardoned.. . . He was trying to organize an insurrection among the cultivators;” see Leclerc to Decrès (11 June 1802), CC9B/19, ANOM. Note that the passage from line 22 to line 32 repeats earlier passages of the memoir, notably page 15, line 65, page 17, line 32, and page 19, line 1.
227. This incriminating sentence, which supports Leclerc’s accusation that Louverture was awaiting the summer’s fevers to fight back (p. 19, line 31), was underlined in manuscript B by an unknown hand.
228. Dessalines had indeed surrendered at Louverture’s demand; see Dessalines to Louverture (5 May 1802), Folder 23C, KFC-HU. Note that Louverture must have ignored Dessalines’s role in his arrest because he was consistently positive about him in the memoir; see Philippe Girard, “Jean-Jacques Dessalines et l’arrestation de Toussaint Louverture,” Journal of Haitian Studies 17:1 (Spring 2011), 123–138. The ensuing passage, which includes anecdotes that illustrate the concepts of preparedness and forgiveness, is unique to manuscript C.
229. Louverture’s claim is contradicted by his previous account of the burning of Cap and the difficult French landings in Port-de-Paix, Saint-Marc, Port-Républicain, and Léogane.
230. Louverture frequently complained in the spring of 1801 of incidents involving British ships; see Louverture to Edward Corbet (1 Apr. 1801), CO 137/105, BNA.
231. Louverture had known of French military preparations since the spring of 1801: “The rumor I had mentioned to you in Santo Domingo about a French expedition was not inaccurate;” see Pascal to [Louverture] (31 March 1801), Folder 9C, KFC-HU. Louverture learned of the peace with Britain in Dec. 1801 and immediately suspected that “the British government had engaged to join with the Republic in offensive measures against” Saint-Domingue; see W. L. Whitfield to Nugent (9 Dec. 1801), CO 137/106, BNA.
232. Louverture probably referred to Charles Humbert de Vincent, who was not governor but director of Saint-Domingue’s fortifications, and whom he had employed extensively when negotiating with France; see Christian Schneider, “Le colonel Vincent, officier du génie à Saint-Domingue,” in Annales historiques de la révolution française, no. 329 (July 2002), 101–122.
233. This sentence about Louverture’s use of political ruse is accurate but contradicts his previous sentence. Louverture liked to fight “using ruse;” see Laveaux to Jean Dalbarade (22 Sept. 1794), F/3/199, FM, ANOM.
234. According to Isaac Louverture, his father captured the Marquis of Espinville with 800 troops after a victory in Mirebalais, insisted that he be spared, and then allowed him to leave for Havana; see Isaac Louverture, “Notes historiques sur Toussaint Louverture,” 63.
235. The order of Saint-Louis, created by Louis XIV in 1693, was associated with the Ancien Régime and monarchy.
236. As a noble allied to Bourbon Spain, Espinville would have been considered a counterrevolutionary traitor under French revolutionary law. Louverture, however, chose to ally himself with émigrés during the 1790s, which often led to tensions with more radical Frenchmen; see, for example, Louverture to Gabriel d’Hédouville (5 Sept. 1798), Ms. Hait. 71-19 (2), BPL.
237. Under the parole system, captured officers could be released if they gave their word not to fight their captors.
238. This long anecdote, meant to teach Bonaparte about the virtues of forgiveness, also underlined Louverture’s desire to be accepted as a gentleman and an honorable officer.
239. An often-repeated tale holds that Louverture would end his letters to Bonaparte with the phrase “the first of the Blacks to the first of the Whites.” But his typical send-off, as shown in this memoir, was actually “salut et respect;” see, for example, Louverture to Bonaparte (25 June 1800), Dossier 1, AF/IV/1213, AN.