Revolutions - 4.13- The War of Knives

Episode Date: March 7, 2016

From 1799-1800 Toussaint Louverture and Andre Rigaud fought a civil war for control of Saint-Domingue. 

Hello and welcome to revolutions. Episode 4.13, The War of Knives. So last week, Tusson Louvichure not only rid himself of Joseph de Duveille, the directories' official emissary to Saint-Doming, he also opened up independent diplomatic relations with both the United States and Great Britain, who were both at war, or at least quasi-war, with France. This was a bold step towards total political independence, but Tucson was not prepared to go all the way just yet. He rebuffed advances from both the British and Americans to declare independence, and in the wake of Heduvil's departure, he instead called on the third commissioner, Philippe Rome, the last man carrying credentials signed in Paris, to leave Santa Domingo and come back to La Cap, where he would be able to officially rubber stamp Toussons' policies.

Rome reluctantly came back, and though he would half-heartedly push back against Tucson, there was nothing he could really do. So though Tucson still hid behind a veneer of Fieltee to France, he paid them now even less mind than ever. Now, as I somewhat cynically mentioned last week, through the whole course of the Haitian revolution, whatever political faction happened to be on top tended to seek independence from France, while their rivals tended to seek greater ties to France. Now, I don't know if Tucson's ultimate objective was, in fact, total political independence, but it is clear that he is now essentially playing for the program first advanced by the big whites when they sent delegates to the Estates of General way back in 1789.

Their goal had never been independence per se. What they were really after was home rule and the right to free trade. As long as they had those two guarantees in hand, remaining inside, the French Empire was fine. They just wanted to replace the system where the superior metropole dominated the inferior colony and turned the French Empire into a confederation of autonomous units with a shared loyalty. Tusson was now angling for almost this identical program. He didn't need or want any more of the supposed superiors from France telling him what to do, and he wanted San Doming to be able to trade with any power on Earth. If I had to speculate, I'd say

that Tucson would have been fine running an autonomous Sandelman inside the French Empire, rather than actively pursuing a clean break. And certainly the coming war with France would be forced on him by France. It was never anything that he truly sought. Now, one thing we absolutely do know, however, is that Tucson wanted to be the supreme and unchallenged master of the island of Hispaniola. And yes, as we will see here today, he wanted the whole island, not just Sandelman proper. And the only man on the island, currently in a position to stand in his way, was Andre Rego. And now that their mutual enemy had been removed from the island, that is the British, the time had come for Tucson to also

remove Rego. So of course, the flip side of the powerful political factions seeking independence was the weak political faction seeking closer ties to France, and that is now right back where Rigo has found himself. He and his free-colored brethren had begun the Haitian revolution as the staunchest defenders of French authority, as the big whites had used home rule as code for racial apartheid. When the whites had been expelled and politically neutralized, the coloreds then briefly became the dominant political faction, and it was they who brushed off French authority, most dramatically in 1796, with first the coup of General Volot in Le Capp, and then the massacre of all those whites in Le Cuy, later in the summer. Well, now that Tucson has leapfrogged Rigo in terms of

power and prestige, it's time for Rigo and his colored allies to head back to the bosom of the metropole. And in the coming battle with Tusson, Rigo would paint himself as the true defender of the French Republic, who was battling against this usurper Tucson. And in this, he would cling to the dispatch issued by Heduvil in October 1798 that liberated Rigo from his subordination to Dusan, and also clearly hinted that Heduvil would be advocating for Rigo when he returned to France. So in the coming battle with Tucson, André Rago would always keep one eye on the horizon, desperately hoping that reinforcements would arrive from France. But spoiler alert, these reinforcements are not coming.

Now, as I mentioned at the very end of last week's show, right before the outro music didn't kick in, I'm sorry about that, it should be fixed now, the civil war that's about to begin between Rigo and Tucson, dubbed the War of Knives, is simplistically painted as a race war between the blacks and colors. And while this is kind of sort of true, it's not really, really true. I mean, we know that Rigo was setting up a system of colored supremacy, but as open war approached, Rigo was supported by black leaders in the West and North provinces who were disenchanted with Tucson Loveture's rule.

There were plenty of blacks who believed that Tucson was effectively betraying them back into slavery. These are the guys who had just recently chanted long-lived Sontanax in 1796, much to Tucson's great annoyance. So Rigo does have a pro-colored agenda, but his supporters are not only colors. And then more importantly, on Tucson's side, we know that he was absolutely not pursuing black supremacy. He not only had all the whites in Sandomang supporting, him, but he also had a fair number of collards, practical men, landowners and merchants and military officers who believed that Tucson's way forward really was the best way forward. Whatever racial solidarity they might have felt was subordinated to economic solidarity. Tucson was fighting for all

three races to live together and prosper together. This was not about exterminating the coloreds. So though it looks like a war between the blacks and the colored, it really wasn't that at all. But it's also not surprising that history books would report the War of Knives as a race for, seeing as that's how Tucson painted it, as he and Rago waged a propaganda war in early 1799. Tucson launched the first attack of this war of words in February 1799, practically the minute that Tucson's clause was signed into law in Philadelphia, which guaranteed his access to trade with the United States and Britain. He issued an address that denounced Rigo and the colored regime of the South.

Toussaint said, as everyone in Sandomang now does, that Rago planned to re-enslave the blacks the first chance he got. Tucson said, I've been Rago's superior officer for years now, but he won't take orders from me because I'm a black man, and Rago hates black men. Toussaint also pointedly reminded everyone of the fate of the Swiss. The first slave fighters promised freedom by the collards who were then immediately betrayed. Toussaint said that's Rago's plan for all of us. Use us to get power and then betray us back into chains. Rigo then fired back with an address of his own that said, I cannot believe I'm the one being accused of hating blacks. I have fought for racial equality my whole life, you know, sword in one hand, declaration of the rights of man in the other.

Half my family is black. I was raised by blacks. I have fought alongside blacks. Tusson Louvichure is a two-faced double dealer, and you shouldn't believe him because I promise you, it's not me. It's him who wants to put you back into chains. He is planning on selling out everybody to the British, who will bring with them re-enslavement. I mean, just a couple of months ago, he expelled the official representative of the French

Republic so that he could make deals with the British and the Americans who are nothing but racist and slavers. So if you think he won't throw you back into chains, you're kidding yourself. I am actually the one fighting to keep you free. And the funny thing about all of this is that aside from Rigo's very real favoritism of the colors, the rival regimes of Tucson and Rigo are like practically the same. Neither question that plantation economics was the only way forward, neither question that blacks must be the labor force.

And despite their mutual accusations, neither planned on re-enslaving the black cultivators. Neither was particularly interested in Democratic Party. participation in government, nor being told what to do by France, even as they both position themselves as the two representatives of France. And as for cutting deals with the slave powers, I mean, Rago has been able to maintain his position thanks to a very brisk trade with American merchants. So what are we really looking at here? That's right, we are looking at two powerful and ambitious men running into each other. Everything else is just a lot of talk. But though they were both

ambitious and powerful. There was very little hope for Andre Rigo in the final analysis. Because on the eve of the War of Knives, the balance of power in Sandelmeng was hardly a balance of power at all. Between Rago's Legion of the South and various independent forces who would come to back him, he commanded about 15,000 troops. That's pretty good. But meanwhile, Tusson now commanded nearly 50,000 troops. Rigo's men were better trained and better force. And he was better trained. And fighters and better organized, but the brutal math of the thing was overwhelming. Still, though, Rigo was not content to just sit back and get pushed out of the colony, and so in June 1799, the war of words ended, and the war of knives began, and Rigo launched

the opening attack of that war. This first attack was against a pair of port cities on the north side of the southern Peninsula. These two ports were Petit Goaev and Grand Goawe. These two ports had been occupied by small garrisons loyal to Tucson, as the British had pulled out in 1798. But in his final dispatch, Hed O'Ville had told Rigo that those two cities were actually a part of your territory and fall under your jurisdiction. And Rigo used this to justify mustering a force of 4,000 men to go easily expel Tucson's little nominal garrisons. This bold strike also earned him the open support from a great colored officer who currently held the important city of Jacques Mel, and who will go on to figure

very prominently in the history of independent Haiti, Alexandra Petion. Petyon was born in Porte Prince in 1770 to a big white father and a mulatto mother. So Petion himself was classified as a quadroon under the now defunct racial categorization system. Like Julian Raymond and Andre Rigo, and other sons of wealthy mixed-race families, Petion was sent back to France to be educated in 1788, so just before the French Revolution broke out. He's a hard guy to nail down, but Petion appears to have been back in Sandomang by 1791, and as a young, energetic, and educated colored man, he enthusiastically joined the colored revolt

against racial apartheid when all hell broke loose in the summer of 1791. He then spent the rest of the revolution under arms and remained loyal to the French Republic when other colored started bolting for the British after the Emancipation Decree of 1793. But he was never a part of Rago's Legion of the South, and with Tusson's elevation to Commander-in-Chief, Petion's ultimate chain of command led up to Tucson, not to Rago. So his defection to Rigo in the summer of 1799 was kind of a blow to Tucson's plan for a quick and decisive campaign. And just so you know, Alexandra Petyon is going to wind up the first president of the Republic of Haiti. So yes, he does play a prominent role in the future of independent Haiti.

Now Rigo was hoping that his attack on Petit and Grand Gau would help trigger a larger anti-Tusan uprising. And in the early summer of 1799, he had some reason to hope that it might actually happen, because up in the heart of Tucson's territory, black revolt against Tucson's rule began to flare up. In the countryside surrounding Mollay-San Nicola and Portapai, cultivators rose up in arms against Tucson's regime, forcing Tucson to hold off, making an immediate move against Rigo while he pacified his own territory. I mean, there was even a flash of insurricular. Ironsorrectionary anger on the North Plains themselves, just outside of Le Cap, practically where Tucson

had been born and raised. Now, Toussaint-Louvature has always cultivated this image of himself as the generous father figure, always forgiving and forgetting. He's Papa Tucson, but he had no time or patience for these revolts. And so he sent his soldiers in to pretty ruthlessly crush the insurrectionaries, and instead of showing mercy, they showed no mercy at all. And the man Tucson trusted with this is the man whose time has finally come, who, like Petionne, will play a huge role in the future of independent Haiti, Jean-Jacques Desaline. Jean-Jacques Desaline was born most likely in Guinea, in West Africa.

His birth date is officially listed as September the 20th, 1758, but to be honest, I have a really hard time believing this was actually officially recorded somewhere. He was captured and sold into slavery as a young boy, likely along with his whole family, because we know, for example, that he had two brothers in Sandelmeng with him. He spent his formative years working in the fields of the North Plains, but did eventually rise up the ranks to become a driver, which was somewhat unusual for an African-born slave, but having been brought into slavery at such a young age, I guess he could be trusted. Now, for most of his young life, Desaline was known as Jean-Jacques DuClo. taking his name from his owner, just as Tucson was originally known as Tucson Brata, because that was his owner's name. But while the origin of Louvichure is a bit confused, thanks to many rounds of myth-making, Desaline gets his final last name thanks to something far more mundane. Around 1788, he was sold to a new owner named Desaline, and so his name changed.

When the original slave revolt started brewing in the summer of 1791, Desaline was right in the heart of it, but he was not one of the leading leaders. When the fighting began, he wound up attached to the army of Jean-François, but was not much more than the equivalent of a lieutenant in the slave armies. And though he may have been amongst those who would have been freed, had the Big Whites accepted that deal at the end of 1791 to end their revolt, he was almost certainly not amongst the final 60 that Tucson had negotiated down to at the last minute. Desiline then stayed with Jean-Francois and was among those formally enrolled into the Spanish

army in 1793. At some point, though, in here, he winds up serving under Tucson Louvichure, and when Tucson took over control of the far west of the North province, Desaline went with him and then defected to the French along with Tucson in the spring of 1794. Under Tucson's patronage, Desaline rose up the ranks quickly as Tucson identified Desaline as an officer who could be relied on to get the job done. In the subsequent battles against their old comrades, Jean-François and Bissou, Desaline was given command of important missions, and he never let Tucson down. But though Desaline was for sure an officer Tucson could count on in the field,

there was an even more specific role for Desaline to play. He was the bad cop, the heavy, the man who had no mercy in his heart whatsoever. And when you're talking to you're talking about, trying to be enlightened and generous, while simultaneously being an authoritarian strong man, as Tucson currently is trying to do, you need someone who isn't afraid to do your dirty work for you. And for Tucson, that man was, among others, Jean-Jacques Dessaline. And this wasn't just about role-playing. Though they were tightly linked, Tucson and Dessaline had genuinely divergent world views. So Tucson wanted reconciliation and coexistence with the whites and colors.

He's not a black supremacist. Well, Desaline is. He hated the whites, and he hated the colors. Had Desaline been an overall command during the War of the Knives, painting it as a race war would have been a no-brainer, but he is still just the enforcer, not the supreme leader. And one of the things that a guy like Desaline allows a guy like Tucson to do is avoid taking responsibility for brutal but necessary repression, as happened in the North Province in 1799. When the threat of the recent insurrections was eliminated, Tucson could then come riding in and say, oh, no, this isn't what I wanted at all. Oh, my friends, this is not what I wanted at all.

He could curry favor with the black population by openly reprimanding his officers while quietly saying, thanks good work, once the cultivators were back in the fields. But open revolt was not the only threat facing Tucson during the summer of 1799, and he also escaped not one but two assassination attempts, both of which he escaped only by sheer luck. During the first, a gunman opened fire and put a bullet through Tucson's hat, and one through Tucson's personal physician, who was killed on the spot, and then during the second, multiple gunmen strafed Tucson's carriage and riddled it with bullets, but Tucson just so happened to be riding his horse near the rear of this entourage

and was not in the carriage when the assassin struck. Tucson would pretty much spend the rest of his life not unjustifiably paranoid about assassins, and he took elaborate precautions to stymie their efforts. Now, as I just mentioned, the brutal math of the War of Knives spelled doom for Andre Rugo, especially after whatever anti-Tusan elements inside the black population were unable to get anything unified going against him. But even with his mass numerical advantage, the truly decisive factor in the War of Knives, was the United States Navy. With the signing of Tucson's clause in February 1799,

the United States clearly had an interest in continuing to do business with Tucson Louvichure, and the new American consul in La Cap, a guy named Edward Stevens, was amongst the most vocal proponents of making sure that Tucson Louvichure stayed in power. In the summer of 1799, for example, Tucson's army had actually been struggling to properly arm itself, after the quasi-war had shut down access to American munitions, while Stevens worked with his counterparts in British Jamaica to organize an emergency shipment of arms from the neighboring island to ensure Tucson was not seriously threatened

until bigger caches could be delivered from the mainland. Stevens also wrote home to his superiors in the Adams White House, arguing relentlessly that backing Tucson was in America's best interests. But beyond keeping Tucson supplied, actually supporting him in the war was quite a bit further than anyone in Congress who signed off on Tucson's clause would have been willing to go. But Andre Rigo then gave Edward Stevens and the Americans the pretext they were looking for to really enter the fray. Rigo had a little fleet of pirates operating out of L'Kai, who started to prey on British and American merchants once it became clear that they were supporting Tucson over Rago. with the elimination of piracy being one of the core aims of all the diplomacy between the Adams administration and Tucson's regime,

deploying the fledgling U.S. Navy against this new threat posed by Rago's pirates raised no objections. The American set up a naval station in Le Cap and then started patrolling the waters around Sandomang regularly. And when Rago became identified as a pirate enabler, the U.S. Navy showed no hesitation about blockading ports under his control. So by the end of 1799, Tucson was receiving regular shipments of supplies and arms from the United States, and their Navy was attacking Rigo. With this support, he then finally launched a full offensive. But before he did, he sent one of his staunchest white supporters, a colonel in the French army named Vassan, back to Paris to explain what he was doing to the directory and get them

to confirm that Tucson Louverture was in fact the commander-in-chief of the French army. in San Domain, and that Rago not obeying orders was a justifiable cause for the hostilities that were about to commence. Unbeknownst to everyone in San Domang, however, by the end of 1799, the directory was already dead. Without waiting for confirmation from Paris that what he was doing was actually legitimate, Toussaint's army marched south, led by Jean-Jacques Desaline, and this army was too much for Riego's forces to handle. But still, The ensuing battles were hotly contested and very bitter. Neither side offered the other any quarter, and when prisoners were taken, their usual fate was either execution or torture and then execution.

But against the mass onslaught, Rigo had to retreat into the mountains of the South Province. And this retreat then became engulfed in flames, as Rigo elected to burn everything to the ground rather than let it fall intact into Tucson's hands. Now Rugo hoped to raise the black cultivators of the South Province to join him in his fight, but he found almost no takers. The black cultivators of the South Province pretty much hated Andre Rigo's guts, and they welcome the arrival of Tucson's army. But sadly, what we're seeing here and what we've already seen earlier in today's episode is the black cultivators everywhere engaging in a bit of the old grass is greener on the other side fallacy.

The cultivators under Tucson hoped Rago was their salvation. The cultivators under Rago hoped Tucson was their salvation. But there was no salvation to be had. This was a war between two men running authoritarian labor regimes. This was not a war for anyone's salvation. So Dessaline then peeled off from his pursuit of Rigo to lay siege to Jacques Melle, where the defenses there were led by Alexandre Petyon. In November 1799, a prolonged siege began that would

be as bitter as any battle. It's reported that somewhere on the order of 4,000 people died of starvation over the next four months as the siege continued. Meanwhile, by early 1800, the United States Navy was now fully on Tucson's side. Though Edward Stevens did resist requests from Tucson to actually transport Tucson's troops, the U.S. Navy did blockade all the southern ports, and they ran a very close patrol of maritime shipping in Sandal Mangwaters. Ships loyal to Tucson were issued passports by the American consulate that allowed them to operate freely, and anyone not holding one of these passports was liable to be boarded and have their ship seized. Now this made for the rather uncomfortable reality that in Sandalmang, which was still French,

the leaders of Sandalmang could not operate in their own waters without express written permission from a country that had no legitimate claim to jurisdiction in Sandelmang waters whatsoever. But Tucson did not raise any fuss about this, since it was all for his benefit. In February 1800, Jacques Mel, now surrounded by Desilene's army on land and the U.S. Navy by sea, finally fell. Whatever forces Rigo had left in the south now fell back to L'Kai, but there wasn't much left at all. The story goes that when Rago re-entered his capital, that he rang the toxin bells to turn out the local blacks to come in from the fields to fight, and not a single one came. Now, they had all come to his defense in 1796 because they had been told that the third commission was going to re-enslave them, but that had turned out to be a lie. And in the two and a half years since, the lives of the black cultivators had not improved one bit under Rigo. But still, Rigo continued to hold out. And from Tucson's perspective, an all-out assault on L'Kai would have been a very bloody exercise. So rather than rushed to a conclusion that seemed inevitable, Toussons' forces proceeded slowly.

and methodically. And rather than give it up, Rigo kept his eye on the horizon, hoping, hoping, hoping that reinforcements would arrive from France to help him win the war. But in May 1800, word finally did come from France, and it was not what Rago wanted to hear at all. In the meantime, Tucson, confident of victory, was already moving on with the next phase of his plans, controlling not just Sandalmang, but all of Hispaniola. He went to command. He went to command Commissioner Philippe Rom, now under a sort of de facto house arrest, and said, Commissioner, I have grown concerned about reports that honest French citizens are being kidnapped and sold back into slavery over on the Spanish side of the island. This is going on with impunity,

and it must be stopped. So please sign off on my plan to send French forces to Santa Domingo to ensure that the rights of French citizens are protected. I mean, Santa Domingo is ours, right? Right. So please sign here. Philippe Rome, however, resisted sanctioning Tucson's annexation of Santa Domingo without approval from Paris. So to help Rome get over whatever hesitations he might be feeling, Tucson had his adopted nephew Moise go round the northern plains and raise angry cultivators to march to the very edge of Le Cap and demand that Rome take action to stop their brothers and sisters from being sold back into slavery by the sinister Spanish. And in the face of this mob, Rome capitulated and signed off on Tucson's plan. Tusson then

put Rome under an even closer house arrest in the parish of Dondon, where he would no doubt think twice about thinking for himself again. But though he had official permission now to take Santa Domingo, the actual expedition east would wait until after the War of Knives. Now, the war was actually brought to a fairly peaceful conclusion. When a commission, yes, another commission, arrived from France in May 1800 bearing official proclamations from the new government in Paris. A new government in Paris? Okay. Now, for whatever reason, this latest commission is never anywhere called like the fourth commission, so I'm not going to introduce new nomenclature that won't be present in any other history book. And besides, they didn't really have the same power or authority as previous

commissions. They were more like emissaries of First Consul Bonaparte. When they arrived, it became clear that Tucson's emissary, Colonel Vassan, had been very persuasive in arguing Tusson's case to Bonaparte, seeing as how Vassan himself was one of the three commissioners now getting off the boat. The other two were a random general, I won't bother you with, but the third guy is Julian Raymond. After skipping town with Heduvil in October 1798, Raymond spent less than a year in France before accepting Bonaparte,

request to return to Sandomang and represent the consulate. And I'm sure he was just thrilled to be delivering the news that Bonaparte had taken Vassan's advice and confirmed Toussaint-Louvichur as commander-in-chief of the French army in Sandomang. This news deflated Andre Rigo completely. There would be no French reinforcements to support him. There was really no one anywhere supporting him. And knowing that this was the end for Rigo, Touss then did what Tucson does, best. He issued a general amnesty for anyone who laid down their arms and gave up the fight. He also did not force his defeated rival to bend his knee to him, and he quietly approved Rago's plan to leave the island and sail into exile. In June 1800, Andre Rago and his family boarded a ship

and sailed for France. But this is not the end of André Rago. Once he got to France, he would join a small community of colored creoles in exile. Alexander Petion would soon follow, and these guys would continue to lobby for their rights, and soon enough, would be headed back to Sandomang, but we'll get into all that next week. With Rago out of the way, Tucson personally led his army into Lecai, and unless I'm mistaken, I think this is the first time Tucson has actually ever set foot in the capital city of the south province. When he arrived, he publicly confirmed the general amnesty, but right on cue, his junior officers carried out a swift massacre of prisoners identified as possible sources of future trouble.

Once again, Tucson expressed horror at the bloodthirsty conduct of his officers, and he reprimanded Desaline saying, I asked you to trim the tree, not tear it up by the roots. But we are talking about hundreds of dead here, not thousands, as later anti-Tusan rhetoric would have it, but and Desaline himself appears to have personally intervened to save some men slated for execution. So Tucson is triumphant. He is the master of Sandomang. But of course, as history has shown us time and time again, final victory often just sets the conditions for the next conflict, and so it was in Sandomang in 1800. So just as he defeated his last internal rival, Toussaint suddenly had to start worrying about external threats again. With Bonaparte now in

power in France, the whole international arena was undergoing an upheaval. And Sandomeng had always been merely one piece and a much larger game of chess being played by the great powers. Both the Americans and French, for example, were sick of the quasi-war, which was hurting them both. Negotiations began in March 1800 to end the conflict, and though these negotiations dragged on over sticky issues like whether the Treaty of Friendship of 1778 was still in effect and whether France would pay reparations for the merchandise they had seized from American traders. The matter of Sandelmeng helped keep the two sides at arm's length. The Americans wanted to guarantee that they would be able to keep trading with the island without interference. And the French negotiators said,

yeah, we'll think about it, but we are not very happy with the way you've been issuing American passports so that French flagged ships can sail peacefully in French waters. So, I mean, don't expect a ton of consideration on the Sandalmeng front. But even as the American negotiations, you know, were pressing for trade concessions, the actual American merchants coming in and out of Sandomang started reporting that this place isn't nearly as lucrative as it used to be. As we've talked about, the years of revolt and war and devastation had left Sandomang a shell of its former self, and the War of Knives had not improved anything. Dusan's attempt to revitalize the plantation system ran into a trifecta of problem, some of which we've already mentioned. First, there was his own need to

keep as many young men under arms as possible. Second, the material devastation of the formerly industrialized sugar plantations was starting to look permanent. And third, the unwillingness of the cultivators to work themselves to death to maximize sugar and coffee exports. So both British and American merchants sailing regularly into Sandelmang Harbor since the signing of Tucson's Clause the year before, were very disappointed by what they found. Sandomang was not producing enough exports to make the trips worthwhile. The merchandise the British and Americans carried into Le Cap went unsold, and the mountains of coffee and sugar they were supposed to be picking up did not materialize. The opening of Sandelmang

was supposed to be a boon to the merchant fortunes, and instead it was a deflated bust. Suddenly, the northeastern merchants weren't quite so hot to demand American foreign policy make special concessions for Sandomang. And with the war with France winding down and Thomas Jefferson and his Democratic Republicans ready to storm the government in the election of 1800, the whole relationship between the United States and Sandomang, which had been so critical to Toussaint's final victory, was about to be reappraised entirely. And then back in France, First Consul Bonaparte is obviously not the kind of guy who is going to let a key piece of the French empire operate without proper oversight. Now, of course, at the moment, Bonaparte had European wars and politics to contend with,

so colonial affairs were not his top priority. But in the Constitution of Year 8, that created the consulate, he wrote in an article that addressed colonial policy that spelled big trouble for Tucson Louvichure, because Bonaparte was about to take French policy round back to where it had been before Termidor. No more of this French nation one and indivisible nonsense. The article in Question. Article 91 is short, and so I'll quote it in full. Quote, the form of government of the French colonies is determined by special laws, unquote. I mean, that's it. But in Sandalemang, special laws had always meant one thing, apartheid and slavery. So when Bonaparte sent his emissaries to San Domang, they carried with them both the Constitution of Year 8 and a letter written by Bonaparte

to placate colonial fears that those special laws would meet a return of slavery and apartheid. And though it's a little longer than Article 91, I'm also going to quote it in full because it's an interesting little document, and clearly written with Montesquieu open in Bonaparte's lap. Citizens, a constitution that wasn't able to defend itself against multiple violations has been replaced by a new PAC destined to solidify freedom. Article 91 states that the French colonies will be ruled by special laws. This disposition derives from the nature of things, and the differences in climate. The inhabitants of French colonies located in America, Asia, and Africa cannot be governed by the same laws. The difference in habits, in mores, and interests, the diversity of soil, crops, and goods produced demand diverse modifications. Far from being a subject of alarm for you, you will recognize here the wisdom and profound

of vision that animate the legislators of France. The consuls of the Republican announcing to you the new social pact declare to you that the sacred principles of freedom and equality of the blacks will never suffer amongst you the least attack or modification. If there are ill-intentioned men in the colony, if there are those who still have relations with enemy powers, remember brave blacks, that the French people alone recognize your freedom and the equality of your rights. Signed, First Consul Bonaparte. Now, this was a wild pack of bullshit. Bonaparte was too busy with more pressing affairs to get going on his expanding dream of true global domination.

But when he said the blacks had nothing to worry about, man, they had everything to worry about. Because when Bonaparte finally got free of European war, he turned the full force of his attention to completely and thoroughly reimposing French authority in Sandomang, re-instituting white supremacy, and re-enstituting white supremacy, and re-encenting. slaving the blacks. But before Bonaparte could draft the kind of special laws that would tend to do, well, all of this, Toussaint would beat him to the punch. And next week, without the permission or even consultation with the French government, Toussaint-Louvature will draft the Constitution of 1801, which he will then unilaterally assert fulfills Article 91 of the Constitution of year 8. You said we are to be governed by special laws, Well, great. I've got your special laws right here, and I dare you to do anything about them.