The following is a DBQ we did on the Haitian Revolution in the past week

Toussaint Louverture: Leader, Liberator and Military genius

Haiti is a special case in our world. It is one of the only cases of successful slave revolt. Led by Toussaint Louverture, this revolution is about the colony of Saint Dominique separating from France. Toussaint, playing an obvious key role in this, is an interesting person himself. He liberated the slaves of Haiti from French rule, but soon after they were back working in the fields, under the overview of the same people as before. His genius and role in this revolution is necessary for it’s success, but he was rather unfavored towards the end of his life. Despite this Toussaint Louverture is still an important figure. Toussaint Louverture should be remembered as a liberator of the slaves and a brilliant military leader, due to his role in liberating the slaves in Haiti, his role in ruling over Haiti, and leading people to fight against the invasion brought back to re-enslave the people of Haiti.

L’ouverture was quite accomplished as a military leader. In 1794, slavery was abolished in France and all of it’s colonies. However, in 1796, 3 men, L’ouverture, General Dessalines, and General Christophe organized an army against the British, who were suspected of expanding their colony of Jamaica into Haiti. (A) However, two years later the British were defeated leaving Louverture the ruler of Haiti. In between those events, L'ouverture also was in contact with France saying if they ever tried to come back to reinstate slavery in Haiti, the people on the island would not stand by and watch their freedom strippped from them. (B) However this did not stop the French.  In 1802, French troops were ordered to the island to reinstate slavery. While the troops were defeated, Louverture was captured and died in jail one year later. Haiti declared independence, and because of the contribution and actions of Louverture, remained independent from France after that.

Louverture was also considered the liberator of the slaves. The Constitution of 1801, signed by Louverture, existed to abolish slavery, stay agriculturally based colony and now give workers in fields some revenue. It also existed to make Louverture ruler of the colony. (C)  Louverture worked hard to abolish slavery, being a key person in the event. But even after they were separated from France, Louverture wrote to the French “We have known how to confront danger to our liberty, and we will know how to confront death to preserve it.”(B) The Haitian colony has worked hard to free themselves of slavery, and they are not going to watch it get stripped from them. Toussaint defended his people with all his might from slavery, and it was with his actions that Haiti is still free today.

The final aspect of Louverture he should be remembered by is leading the country of Haiti forward after slavery. Louverture realized that Haiti was reliant on the money they received from growing sugar. However, people were very upset when he said that they should go back to working in the fields, under the same people that were slave drivers before. The difference is now people were getting paid for their labour. That being said, that changed little about how people thought of this order, since it minimized what change had occurred due to the revolution. “As soon as a child can walk, he should be employed on the plantation according to his strength in some useful work…” (D) This was a proclamation that came from Louverture. While he was technically right in saying Haiti was dependant on the money from sugar, that changed nothing in the eyes of the people, and over time his approval rating dropped on the island. Despite this, no change would have occurred without Louverture, making him an important man despite his loss of popularity.

Toussaint Louverture is one of the most important people who had a role in shaping the world we live in now. He had a huge role in arranging the army that defended Haiti, and beat back Napoleon’s brother from taking the island back as a french colony. He governed the island and made tough choices that while lead to his impopularity, were still necessary to be made to keep Haiti in tact financially. While most people don’t know of him, he is surely an important man.

Citations

Document A: Timeline created from various sources

Document B: Toussaint Louverture, “Letter to the French directory, November 1797

Document C: The Saint Dominique constitution of 1801. Signed by Toussaint Louverture in July 1801

Document D: Toussaint Louverture, “Proclamation, 25 November 1801”

Document E: Madison Smartt Bell, Toussaint Louverture: A Biography, 2007

Document F: William Wells Brown, “A Description of Toussaint Louverture,” from The Black Man, His antecedents, His Genius, and his Achievements, 2nd edition, 1863. Engraving of Toussaint Louverture, 1802.

Less known Revolutions

Recently, we have been disscusing the Latin American revolutions; more specifically the revolutions in Brazil, Mexico, and Gran Columbia. To study this the class broke up into 3 groups nd each studied one of the revolutions. But first we looked at the somewhat rediculous social classes in these areas and the combinations one could make with the different races, and also how about 1% of the populaiton has all the power. 

The picture above is the timeline my group created, noting all of the important events in the Gran Columbian revolution. All of the revolutions shared some attributes, and all of them were very different. For one, all the countries were revolting for independance from another group of people. For another, all the countries were trying for idependance from a European country. However, they were not all the same. Not all the revolutions called for a constitution. Also, not all the revolutions were against the same social group of people. While Mexico and Gran Columbia were against the upper 1% of the population, Brazil was not.

Today, while fights against race has come far, it has not come far enough, in my opinion. While yes, people of other races have many more rights, they still are far from equal. In recent months, there have been cases of police shooting young men of color for mostly petty theft. In all of these cases, the young men died, and through most accounts of the event, thee person had already surednered. While  not all of theese events may hae been based of of race, far too often does this happen to people of color, and they rarely happen to those not of color.