Week 3

TIMELINE OF EVENTS ON ABOLITION OF SLAVERY AND THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION: 

See this timeline of Haitian Revolution:https://thehaitianrevolution.com/

1789 - Abbé Grégoire, "Memoir in Favor of the People of Color or Mixed–Race of Saint Domingue" (1789)

15 May 1791 - National Assembly grants political rights to all free blacks in the colonies born of free mothers and fathers. 

22 Aug 1791 - Slave uprising begins in Saint Domingue. 

24 Sept 1791 - Rights of free blacks rescinded. 

28 Sept 1791 - Abolition of Slavery in France, but not in the colonies. 

28 March 1792 - Rights of free blacks reinstated. 

20 June 1792 - Black and mixed-race Haitians in the South of Haiti ally with the British and begin an open rebellion. 

Feb 1793 - Rebel leaders, including Toussaint Louverture, join Spanish forces to fight against the French.  France declares war on England and Holland.

Aug-Oct 1793 - Agents in Saint Domingue abolish slavery. 

4 Feb 1794 - National Convention Decree Abolishing Slavery in All Colonies. 

1796-1801 - Toussaint Louverture in Power

 25 August 1797 - Louverture forces Sonthonax to return to France prematurely in a political move calculated to strengthen his position and gain favor in France. Sonthonax, despite wanting to leave the colony in the first place, finds himself forced out. As a result, instead of a normal and peaceful departure, the event becomes a humiliating and “forcible expulsion.” The remaining civil commissioners in the colony defer to Louverture, reaffirming that he is the most powerful figure in Saint-Domingue. Louverture misjudges, however, and instead of gaining favor abroad, his audacity threatens the French and he is quickly seen as a major threat.

Fall 1797-Winter 1798 - Louverture’s army conquers most of British-occupied Saint-Domingue in the West. In the South, Rigaud’s army conquers the British at Jérémie.

30 Aug 1800 - Louverture is proclaimed the colony’s Supreme Commander-in-Chief. He and his revolutionary army of ex-slaves are “the uncontested dominant forces in Saint-Domingue” and he begins to impose what is essentially a military dictatorship. He has an army of 20,000 men to enforce his position as “absolute master of the island-colony."

 Louverture institutes a new set of policies enforcing the traditional plantation system so that the colony’s shaken economy can produce exports for France. This is an extension and reinforcement of earlier work codes imposed by French civil commissioners such as Sonthonax, Polverel and Hédouville. The laborers see the policies as an effort to re-impose slavery. They further object to Louverture’s plan to import Africans to increase the Saint-Domingue’s labor force and buoy its economy.

8 July 1801 - Louverture proclaims the new constitution in Saint-Domingue and is declared Governor General for life. The constitution, which is sent to France, sanctions the structures Louverture has already set in place, and emphasizes the bourgeois principles of the French Revolution.

Slavery is abolished forever and the constitution eliminates social distinctions of race and color, stating “all individuals be admitted to all public functions depending on their merit and without regard to race or color.” All individuals born in the colony were to be “equal, free, and citizens of France.” Voodoo is outlawed, mandatory labor is codified and Catholicism is established as the colony’s official religion. Black slaves, chafing against Louverture’s mandatory labor requirements, reject the measures through various forms of resistance. (Dupuy)

Though the constitution essentially usurps the power of the French, Saint-Domingue still identifies as a French colony. The constitution attempts to establish Saint-Domingue as equal to France, asserting the colony’s autonomy while still trying to receive benefits from France. Though the constitution is not a formal declaration of independence, Bonaparte immediately recognizes it as a threat and rejects it. General Victor-Emmanuel Leclerc, Bonaparte’s brother-in-law, is sent to Saint-Domingue to re-impose slavery and the Code Noir.

By now planters are increasingly unhappy with the state of affairs in Saint-Domingue and are relying on Bonaparte to unseat Louverture, restore slavery, and facilitate the rise of the colony once more. Bonaparte is sympathetic, declaring that “Toussaint was no more than a rebel slave who needed to be removed, whatever the cost.” (Fick, p. 206)

October 1801 - Napoleon sends General Leclerc to Saint-Domingue to disarm Blacks and mixed-race Haitians and force them back onto plantations and reinstate slavery. 

7 June 1802 - Leclerc betrays Louverture and arrests him and sends him back to France. 

August 1802 - News that Bonaparte has retored slavery (May decree) reaches Saint Domingue and the revolution erupts again. 

Aug-Oct 1802 - Battles between French and rebels. 

13-14 Oct 1802 - Revolutionary leaders Dessalines and Christophe defect fromthe French and take all Black and mixed-race generals with them. A new revolutionary army forms. 

30 Nov 1803 - French troops capitulate and flee.