Pitt’s Hypocritical Opportunism

Toussaint Louverture adeptly played the colonial superpowers, France, Britain and Spain against each other, seeking the best arrangement, but his belief that independence was unnecessary ultimately cost him dear. Early in the Revolution, British Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger, tried to exploit France’s difficulties by proposing legislation to abolish slavery, but William Wilburforce was soon stopped in his tracks as Pitt saw an opportunity to seize Haiti for Britain and deal a blow to France in the process.

Who cared if that would cost slaves their liberty for another 45 years? Pitt certainly didn’t. Slavery wasn’t abolished in Britain and her empire by his government – nor was the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Pitt died a year before the slave trade was abolished. Baron William Grenville succeeded Pitt and was the Prime Minister when the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act was passed on March 25th 1807.

Instead of abolishing slavery, Pitt decided to try to seize Saint-Domingue for Britain – it was after all, a very coveted possession. Less than a decade earlier it had been the most productive colony France ever had. Why wouldn’t Pitt covet it? But his greed cost Britain dear, culminating in a military disaster. Meanwhile, Toussaint got the offer he wanted – Léger-Félicité Sonthonax, the revolutionary French Governor of Saint-Domingue, as it then was, abolished slavery in 1793 and Toussaint abandoned his Spanish ‘allies’ and threw his lot in with revolutionary France. He now fought against his former allies and Britain too, as the revolutionaries switched sides.

Disaster

Pitt’s attempt to seize the French colony proved to be the worst military disaster in British history, costing huge resources, ships and men. It began in 1793 when France declared war on Britain and ended in September 1798 after the British had suffered debilitating losses to guerrilla warfare and Yellow Fever. It is hardly ever mentioned.

A force of 20000 men, mainly mercenaries, added to by 7000 slaves offered freed to to fight failed to make headway against the armies led by Toussaint Louverture and his equal among Mulattos, General André Rigaud. Two years before they ended the fiasco, Britain had accepted that they could not win, but carried on through fear of the effect on other nearby colonies. It remains a very costly military fiasco. The evacuation by the British coincided with Toussaint, then Colonial Governor, granting protection to colonists who had aided the British if they remained in Saint-Domingue. The disaster could have been even more costly.

The weather caused turbulent waters on route to Ireland and that wrecked French plans for Irish ‘independence’ by blowing supplies for Wolfe Tone’s rebellion off course – the same problems that almost scuppered William of Normandy’s invasion in 1066 and Julius Cæsar’s too. Pitt’s folly almost resulted in Ireland’s independence. It could have cost him even more dearly, and would have done too had it not been for an even greater folly committed by Napoléon Bonaparte.

War and More War

A year after Pitt abandoned hopes of seizing Saint-Domingue, two major events occurred. The uneasy alliance between blacks and Mulattos ended and Bonaparte’s coup brought Napoléon to power.

Rigaud and Louverture allowed their enemies to get inside their heads and turn them against each other – classic divide and rule. The former brothers-in-arms became bitter enemies, as the old racial suspicions resurfaced. The War of Knives ended in the siege of the southern port of Jacmel, which fell to Jean-Jacques Dessalines in March 1800. That led to the Mulatto leaders Rigaud, Alexandre Pétion and Jean-Pierre Boyer and the survivors of their army being evacuated to France. They would return in 1802, having been duped into a shameful plot.

The other event of 1799 was the end of the French Revolution. Napoléon seized power from the Thermidor government and set the world on a descent to war and tyranny. Saint-Domingue was a major part of his plans and so were the Mulatto leaders. They returned in 1802 under the command of Napoléon’s brother-in-law Charles Leclerc, but they had been tricked – the French invasion had no intention of including the Mulattos in a post-revolutionary government. They would be cowed into submission too by the fate of the revolutionaries.

Errors of Judgement

They thought that they were returning to govern Saint-Domingue and that the French government recognised that, but that was not Bonaparte’s intention at all. He planned to restore slavery – a plan approved of by Britain and the USA in advance of the invasion – and regain the most productive colony France had ever had. Toussaint, too, was misguided. He believed in France and in Napoléon and used the lull in hostilities to act against more radical revolutionaries.

It backfired against him, and almost against the revolutionaries. Among the casualties – executed on Toussaint’s orders – was the popular and courageous General Moïse, his own nephew. Moïse never trusted French colonial intentions and sided with former slaves keen to defend their gains against any who would re-enslave them, including the French. It led Moïse into what was considered a treacherous rebellion by Louverture. It was suppressed by Dessalines, who executed Moïse. Toussaint soon had cause to regret executing Moïse.

Gifted

Toussaint Bréda was born a slave in 1743. He had a liberal master who allowed him to learn to read and write. He was influenced by the Enlightenment philosophers. He became a Black Jacobin. But Toussaint had a ‘privieged’ life. He was trained to be a house servant  – still a slave, although he did not experience the full horrors of the bestial regime employed in Saint-Domingue.

Toussaint was devoured by these contradictions. It made him the gifted leader that he became – an adept military commander – but one whose reluctance to take the final step to independence ultimately cost him, but not the Revolution he symbolised so dear. Toussaint did not join that Revolution immediately. He waited until November 1791.

The Best of Enemies

Militarily, Toussaint was undoubtedly a gifted commander. He defeated all comers. First he sided with the Spanish against France because the moderate French Revolutionaries failed to apply the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity to all. Not only did they refuse to abolish slavery, but at the instigation of slave-owning plantation owners, the reneged on a commitment to give rights to free blacks and Mulattos. Toussaint and the Haitian Revolutionaries switched sides in 1793 when the Jacobins came to power in France, and Terror or not, they abolished slavery. So Toussaint fought and defeated the British and Spanish. Still peace was elusive. The Mulatto leader General André Rigaud and Toussaint were both gifted leaders who had fought together in the same cause, but both fell victim to classic divide and rule tactics, which preyed upon the simmering mistrust between blacks and Mulattos. The vicious War of Knives began in 1799, ending the following year in the defeat of the Mulattos, but Rigaud, Alexandre Pétion, Jean-Pierre Boyer and others fleeing to France. They would return with a vengeance in 1802.

Rebuilt

Toussaint Bréda, now known as Louverture, led the Haitian Revolution to the brink of independence, but Toussaint wanted Haiti to be an overseas department of France. It was his misfortune that by the time he administered Saint-Domingue, as Haiti was known then, it was too late. He had restored the economy to prosperity – two thirds of the pre-Revolution level. However, Napoléon had no intention of tolerating any kind of black rule in Saint-Domingue – he wanted nothing less than slavery restored.

During Toussaint’s leadership, an army of self-liberated slaves took on and defeated Britain and Spain and also won a vicious civil war as the revolutionaries split on racial lines – the tensions between black former slaves and the more privileged Mulattos simmered beneath the surface until 1799. The War of Knives was brutal and resulted in the defeat and evacuation of the Mulatto leaders to France, but they were duped into returning to serve a hidden agenda.

Even before the Revolutionaries turned on each other, it was already an incredible achievement, but its enemies were constantly probing for weaknesses, ready to pounce.

Pitt’s Hypocritical Opportunism

Toussaint adeptly played the colonial superpowers, France, Britain and Spain against each other, seeking the best arrangement, but his belief that independence was unnecessary ultimately cost him dear. Early in the Revolution, British Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger, tried to exploit France’s difficulties by proposing to abolish slavery, but William Wilburforce was soon stopped in his tracks as Pitt saw an opportunity to seize Haiti for Britain and deal a blow to France in the process.

Who cared if that would cost slaves their liberty for another 45 years? Pitt certainly didn’t. Slavery certainly wasn’t abolished in Britain and her empire by his government – nor was the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Pitt died a year before the slave trade was abolished. Baron William Grenville succeeded Pitt and was the Prime Minister when the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act was passed on March 25th 1807.

Instead of abolishing slavery, Pitt decided to try to seize Saint-Domingue for Britain – it was after all, a very coveted possession. Less than a decade earlier it had been the most productive colony France ever had. Why wouldn’t Pitt covet it? But his greed cost Britain dear, culminating in a military disaster. Meanwhile, Toussaint got the offer he wanted – Léger-Félicité Sonthonax, the revolutionary French Governor of Saint-Domingue, as it then was, abolished slavery in 1793 and Toussaint abandoned his Spanish ‘allies’ and threw his lot in with revolutionary France.

Disaster

Pitt shelved plans to abolish slavery and authorised a dastardly plan instead – invade and seize the French colony instead. It proved to be the worst military disaster in British history, costing huge resources, ships and men. It began in 1793 when France declared war on Britain and ended in September 1798 after the invasion force had been decimated by guerrilla warfare and Yellow Fever. It is hardly ever mentioned by historians.

A force of 20000 men, mainly mercenaries, added to by 7000 slaves failed to make headway against the armies led by Toussaint Louverture and his equal among Mulattos, General André Rigaud. Two years before they ended the fiasco, Britain had accepted that they could not win, but carried on through fear of the effect on other nearby colonies. It remains a very costly military fiasco. The evacuation by the British coincided with Toussaint, then Colonial Governor, granting protection to colonists who had aided the British if they remained in Saint-Domingue. The disaster could have been even more costly.

The weather caused turbulent waters on route to Ireland and that wrecked French plans for Irish ‘independence’ by blowing supplies for Wolfe Tone’s rebellion off course – the same problems that almost scuppered William of Normandy’s invasion in 1066 and Julius Cæsar’s too. Pitt’s folly almost resulted in Ireland’s independence. It could have cost him even more dearly, and would have done too had it not been for an even greater folly committed by Napoléon Bonaparte.

War and More War

A year after Pitt abandoned hopes of seizing Saint-Domingue, two major events occurred. The uneasy alliance between blacks and Mulattos ended and Bonaparte’s coup brought Napoléon to power.

The War of Knives ended in the siege of the southern port of Jacmel, which fell to Jean-Jacques Dessalines in March 1800. That led to the Mulatto leaders Rigaud,  They would return in 1802, having been duped into a shameful plot.

The other event of 1799 was the end of the French Revolution. Napoléon seized power from the Thermidor government and set the world on a descent to war and tyranny. Haiti was a major part of his plans and so were the Mulatto leaders. They returned in 1802 under the command of Napoléon’s brother-in-law Charles Leclerc, but they had been tricked – the French invasion had no intention of including the Mulattos in a post-revolutionary government. They would be cowed into submission too by the fate of the revolutionaries.

Errors of Judgement

They thought that they were returning to govern Saint-Domingue and that the French government recognised that, but that was not Bonaparte’s intention at all. He planned to restore slavery – a plan approved of by Britain and the USA – and regain the most productive colony France had ever had. Toussaint, too, was misguided. He believed in France and in Napoléon and used the lull in hostilities to act against more radical revolutionaries.

It backfired against him, and almost against the revolutionaries. Among the casualties – executed on Toussaint’s orders – was the popular and courageous General Moïse his own nephew. Moïse never trusted French colonial intentions and sided with former slaves keen to defend their gains against any who would re-enslave them, including the French. Toussaint soon had cause to regret executing Moïse.

Hero or Anti-hero

Simón Bolívar, dubbed by many the Liberator, was undoubtedly one of the great leaders of the nineteenth century independence movement. He occupied pride of place in Venezuela’s National Pantheon. Built in 1874 it serves as a testament to that nation’s liberation. Other heroes and heroines were relegated to the aisle, although some tombs lie empty. Either the remains have not been located, or in one case request for repatriation has been refused.

That tomb is the one next to Bolívar, intended for his most trusted General, Antonio José de Sucre y Alcalá. Ecuador has refused three requests from Bolivia and one from Venezuela for Sucre’s remains to be repatriated – it won’t happen. His tomb occupies pride of place in the Cathedral in Quito. He is one of Ecuador’s national heroes, despite only spending a small part of his life there.

Among the remains that have not been discovered are those of the executed General Manuel Piar and the leader of the first independence struggle of Venezuela and Bolívar’s mentor, Francisco de Miranda – a man Bolívar betrayed to captivity and death. Nevertheless, the late President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez had an elaborate mausoleum constructed that was unveiled in May 2013. Bolívar’s remains have been reinterred in the Mausoleum. But how justified is his reputation as South America’s Liberator?

Miranda’s Ghost

Bolívar served his apprenticeship under the first of the great Venezuelan patriots Francisco de Miranda – a colourful character, no doubt. Miranda’s first attempt at liberation was a dismal failure. His leadership of the First Republic failed too. Miranda decided to flee – a decision that incensed Bolívar among others. They captured Miranda. Bolívar and others handed him over to the Spanish, not caring what happened to him.

Their decision condemned Miranda to die in exile in jail and to be buried unidentified in a mass grave. With Miranda out of the way, there was a vacuum in the revolutionary independence movement. Bolívar was one of many vying for control of the movement. He assumed the leadership of a faction of the independence movement, which lacked unity and strong leadership – essential traits in a liberation struggle.

Bolívar, like the others was ruthless when he needed to be. In reality the liberation movement consisted of warlords vying with each other as much as the Spanish. There was little to separate Bolívar from the others. The difference was yet another man he betrayed, but in a different way to Miranda – Haiti’s President Alexandre Pétion.

The Liberator

In 1815 and 1816 Bolívar’s liberation campaign was undistinguished at best. In reality it had failed. Had Bolívar been captured or killed at this point, history would have forgotten him. He was saved from obscurity by an implacable opponent of slavery and contributor to many liberation struggles throughout Latin America.

Pétion, at this stage was by far the more successful revolutionary. Born mixed race, but darker-skinned than his father Pascal Sabès wanted, Pétion experienced both privilege and prejudice at an early age. He was denied his father’s name, but received an education and training in France. As a young man he returned to Saint-Domingue (Haiti) and fought under General André Rigaud on the losing side in the War of Knives – the Haitian Civil War – returnintg in 1802. Realising that he had been duped – Napoléon intended to deny them rights and restore slavery, Pétion switched sides, joining the revolution under Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Haiti became independent in 1804, but Dessalines proved to be a tyrant.

Pétion and Henri Christophe conspired against the despotic Dessalines. The Emperor Jacques I was assassinated in October 1806. The following year Pétion had become President of Southern Haiti, Christophe had himself crowned King Henry I. The two remained at loggerheads, but while Christophe established a feudal regime, Pétion favoured a Presidential system. Despite never being a slave, Pétion proved to be the greater opponent of that institution.

Larger than Life

President Pétion was a larger than life character. When an assassin tried to kill him, Pétion interceded, shut everyone but the man out of the room and spoke to him at length. Pétion convinced him to become one of his most devoted supporters.

Meanwhile, destitute and desperate, Bolívar was at his wits end. He had spent his fortune trying and failing to liberate Venezuela. He needed help. Pétion recognised the revolutionary spark in Bolívar – the potential to become a great independence fighter – so he supported Bolívar by offering troops, ships, arms and resources. A grateful Bolívar set sail to resume the fight, but lost it all and had to return to beg further help of Pétion, which the Haitian President provided again.

Pétion demanded just one thing in return – a promise that Bolívar would abolish slavery everywhere he liberated. Bolívar readily agreed. He would later renege on his word to Pétion, but his success depended on utilising Miranda’s idea with the one thing that Miranda had lacked – the resources to hire experienced fighters who had cut their teeth in the Napoléonic wars.