Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Haiti: Historical Setting
attention to domestic issues. In 1800 the plantations were operating
at only two-thirds of their former productivity. Toussaint
sought to maintain an export economy by putting his generals
in charge of the plantations. He reinstated forced labor, fermage,
in order to grow sugar, coffee, and other crops; made
Roman Catholicism the official religion; and outlawed voodoo,
the religion of most of the population. Toussaint also declared
divorce illegal and demanded monogamy and marital fidelity
of his subjects, although he himself kept mistresses.
According to a constitution approved by the Colonial Assembly
in 1801, Toussaint was made governor general for life and
given the authority to choose his successor. This did not please
slave-holding countries, such as the United States and Britain,
and threatened French ambitions for a western empire. With
the French victorious in Europe, on October 23, 1801, Napoleon
ordered his brother-in-law, General Charles Victor
Emmanuel Leclerc, to retake the colony and restore slavery.
A 20,000-man French-led expeditionary force, which
included Polish, German, Dutch, and Swiss mercenaries and
was joined by white colonists and mulatto forces under Petion
and others, landed on the north coast of Saint-Domingue in
January 1802. Their numbers were later doubled. Toussaint
held out for several months, but two of his chief lieutenants,
Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Henry Christophe, held separate
talks with the French and went over to their side. On May 6,
1802, Toussaint surrendered, perhaps believing that blacks
would be allowed to retain their freedom or that tropical diseases
would work their earlier magic and allow him to regain
control. However, despite French assurances of his safety, Toussaint
was arrested in June 1802 and sent to the Fort de Joux
prison in the Jura mountains of France, where he died on April
7, 1803.
Following Toussaint's betrayal, Dessalines, Christophe, and
Petion regrouped to oppose Leclerc and his diseased army.
Leclerc requested reinforcement but died of yellow fever two
months later, in November 1802. Once his replacement, General
Donatien Rochambeau, arrived, fierce fighting continued
for another year, during which 55,000 more people were killed,
including most of the remaining whites. Many plantations and
villages were also destroyed. By September 1803, Rochambeau
wrote to Napoleon Bonaparte advising him that the only way
for France to win would be to kill everyone over twelve in Saint-
Domingue. Meanwhile, more than 20,000 of his own forces
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