What Is Louverture?

During 1796-1797, Louverture and Rigaud’s army conquered the British and forced them out of Saint-Domingue. The British surrendered to fight and negotiated for peace with Louverture. Louverture granted amnesty to the French citizens, all black troops in the British army, and the émigrés. As France started to fear Louverture, they tried to weaken him by dividing him and Rigaud. However as those efforts failed, they managed to fill the S-D army with white soldiers and sent the black soldiers to work back in the plantations. But the blacks did not accept it and caused a revolt to break out again. Moreover, war broke out between Louverture and Rigaud to decide the leader of S-D. People were in more favor towards Louverture because the blacks feared

General Leclerc in Saint-Domingue In 1801, Napoleon’s brother-in-law, General Victor-Emmanuel Leclerc, was sent to S-D to reinstate slavery and the Code Noir. Napoleon gave Leclerc instructions while in S-D:

First stage (15-20 days): Leclerc is to convince Saint-Domingue residents of France’s good will and peaceful intentions. Leclerc is to claim the troops are there to protect the colony and preserve its peace, allowing the troops to land and take control of the major port cities.

Second stage: wage war against the rebel army generals to break the masses’ moral and leave them leaderless.

Third stage: disarm all the blacks and mulattoes and force them back onto plantations to reinstate slavery. Bonaparte’s commands to Leclerc included, “Do not allow any blacks having held a rank above that of a captain to remain on the

Rochambeau took command and requested Napoleon for 35,000 more troops and brought in man-eating dogs to kill the blacks. However, the slaves were able to resist. The French tried one last time to kill the slaves but without any money or supplies and being highly affected from yellow fever, the French fail leaving the French military weak. Moreover, Dessalines began a scorched-earth campaign and burnt many plantations to the ground. In May 1803, Dessalines created the Haitian flag by ripping the white fabric from the French tricolor flag. The red and blue represented the unity of blacks and mulattoes against the whites. Dessalines gave the blue and red pieces to his god-daughter, Catherin Flon, who sewed the very first Haitian flag. In August, the French started evacuating all their troops from S-D.

Haitian Independence On 1 January 1804, Dessalines announced Haiti’s independence, forming the world's first black republic. The colony of Saint-Domingue was abolished forever and the Taino name Hayti was officially restored. Dessalines then ordered the murder of the remaining French and at least 4,000 were killed. On October 1804, Dessalines was crowned Emperor Jacques I of Haiti.