By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (May 19th 2017)<\/p>\n
A Free Hand<\/strong><\/p>\n Baron William Grenville, succeeded William Pitt the Younger as Prime Minister in 1806. Four years earlier he played an important in securing a temporary peace with Napol\u00e9on Bonaparte\u2019s France- the Treaty of Amiens. While some condemn Grenville over it, the Treaty of Amiens allowed Britain to rebuild after the disastrous Haiti campaign and a war that showed few signs of ending favourably.<\/p>\n Amiens allowed Napol\u00e9on to put his resources and efforts into regaining Saint-Domingue. Both the British and Americans were secretly informed of Napol\u00e9on\u2019s plans and approved them at least by inaction.<\/p>\n Betrayed<\/strong><\/p>\n The USA in particular benefited from Revolutionary Saint-Domingue as it provided a useful trading partner and outlet for them, but despite the contribution of Haitian Revolutionaries to US independence \u2013 the Savannah Monument acknowledges this, as the drummer-boy in the Monument is Henri Christophe, who had escaped slavery to assist \u2013 and after Toussaint Louverture became the Governor, the revolutionaries restored the economy to two-thirds of its pre-Revolution state.<\/p>\n Toussaint\u2019s government provided an important trading outlet for the Americans. But there was a huge contradiction in the amerce approach. They needed an alternative trading partner, or they would be dependent on Britain or France, and Saint-Domingue was geographically more convenient too, but the US economy needed and depended on slavery.<\/p>\n Their War of Independence consciously chose to retain slavery. Haiti\u2019s chose to abolish it, and that offered an example the Americans feared greatly. It speaks volumes that Britain, very recently at war with Napol\u00e9on\u2019s France, was prepared to allow the French dictator a free hand in his efforts to restore slavery.<\/p>\n Given the constant battles and destructive effect they had on the country, that is remarkable. It was however, achieved with a harsh agrarian-based economy.<\/p>\n Scorched Earth<\/strong><\/p>\n Napol\u00e9on had underestimated Haitians\u2019 desire to be free. Toussaint and the Haitian revolutionaries had a potent weapon. A decade before General Winter demolished Napol\u00e9on\u2019s plans to conquer Russia, the Haitian revolutionaries used their local weapon too. It is no coincidence that they ended hostilities with the French at the time of year they did \u2013 exactly when Yellow Fever started to bite. Instead of fighting the French, the Revolutionaries settled a few scores and left the French to do the same.<\/p>\n Just as Britain was beaten by a combination of guerrilla warfare and Yellow Fever, Bonaparte proved that his arrogance knew no bounds. He made the same mistake and suffered the same fate.<\/p>\n Toussaint was fortunate that he had a ‘liberal’ master who allowed him to learn to read and write. He was later influenced by French Enlightenment philosophers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The French Revolutionaries who overthrew Louis XVI did not abolish slavery and eventually withdrew the limited rights that it gave to free Mulattos and blacks \u2013 this contributed to Saint-Domingue\u2019s Revolution.<\/p>\n Toussaint was on the moderate side of the Revolution in Saint-Domingue. He did not want independence and saw no need for it. He trusted the French to act honourably, but he had miscalculated. There were hidden agendas. Louverture was arrested in May 1802 by Jean-Baptiste Brunet. It breached the agreement between Napol\u00e9on\u2019s representative in Saint-Domingue, Charles Leclerc and Toussaint. The trigger for Louverture\u2019s arrest was a letter to Leclerc, denouncing him for not ordering a rebel leader to lay down is arms, as was required by the ceasefire agreement \u2013 the author of that letter was Jean-Jacques Dessalines.<\/p>\n It gave the pretext needed. Louverture later claimed that following bad behaviour by his troops, he sought a meeting with Brunet and was arrested at it \u2013 Brunet absented himself, but Toussaint\u2019s arrest and subsequent treatment was planned.<\/p>\n Years later \u2013 a prisoner himself \u2013 Napol\u00e9on was confronted over his dishonourable treatment of Toussaint. He didn\u2019t see why he should be bothered about the treatment of \u2018one wretched Negro\u2019. Toussaint was deported to France arriving on July 2nd 1802. He was imprisoned in the mountain jail Fort-de-Joux from August 25th. He was starved in the cold, dying on April 7th 1803 from the neglect he suffered.<\/p>\n Louverture learned too late that Leclerc and Brunet had an agenda to execute \u2013 reversing the gains of the Revolution Louverture had led for over a decade. Prophetically, he told his captors that his comrades would not repeat his mistake. \u201cIn overthrowing me you have cut down in Saint Domingue only the trunk of the tree of liberty\u201d, Louverture said. \u201cIt will spring up again from the roots, for they are numerous and they are deep\u201d.<\/p>\n The French intentions were demonstrated clearly, as not only was Louverture deported, but Mulatto leader Andr\u00e9 Rigaud too. Rigaud was imprisoned in the same jail. It became clear later that year that the French intended to restore slavery in Saint-Domingue \u2013 they did that in Guadeloupe on July 16th 1802, just two weeks after Louverture was deported. The threat of that in Saint-Domingue was the final straw for the Revolutionaries, black and Mulatto. P\u00e9tion and Dessalines met secretly and switched sides in October 1803. The following month under Dessalines\u2019 leadership they attacked the fort of Verti\u00e8res \u2013 the final battle of the Haitian Revolution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (May 19th 2017) A Free Hand Baron William Grenville, succeeded William Pitt the Younger [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19],"tags":[517,525,549,550,551,552,553,554,535,523,544,538],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1467"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1467"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1646,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1467\/revisions\/1646"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fittedin.org\/fittedinwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}