Page 5 - Hispaniola

The Rise of

L'Ouverture

VOCAB Toussaint Louverture was a freed black slave who was educated by his
master, and the leader of the Haitian Independence movement that gave
Haiti its independence. L'ouverture was originally against the idea of the
GUERRILLA WARFARE - Rebellion and preferred not to engage in conflict, but after Boukman Dutty
was killed in November of 1791, Louverture joined the rebellion in an effort
WARFARE IN WHICH A to end slavery, and soon trained an army of his own and taught them the art
SMALL ARMY FIGHTS A of guerrilla warfare. In 1793, Spain and France went to war, and Toussaint
Louverture found himself making an alliance with the Spanish in Santo
BIGGER ARMY BY Domingo, the Spanish were later defeated by the French and in 1795, The
treaty of basel was signed (it gave Santo Domingo over to the French).
USING PETTY TACTICS
Seeing the Spanish were defeated in 1794 Louverture found himself making
SUCH AS SABOTAGE, an alliance with the Affranchis leader, Andre Rigaud and France. Rigaud’s
forces and his own then drove out the last remaining British forces that
RAIDS AND AMBUSHES were on Saint Domingue, and by 1797, it was British free. However in 1798
Louverture started to feel suspiciously towards Rigaud's behaviour, as he
felt that he was trying to take back Saint Domingue for the French and
reinstate slavery. This led to Louverture taking preemptive measures, and
CONSTITUTION OF 1801
issuing the war of the knives. In the war of the knives (1799 - 1800),
- THE CONSTITUTION Louverture’s forces staged a siege that forced Rigaud’s army to retreat to
Jacmel where Jean Jacques Dessalines (one of Louverture’s top general’s)
THAT WAS crushed Rigaud's rebellion (June 1800). Many of Rigaud's officers were sent
ESTABLISHED BY to exile in France but Rigaud himself fled the country and went to France. In
1799 Louverture sent another general, Moises, to Santo Domingo to conquer
TOUSSAINT it. Then, In 1801, Louverture proclaimed himself the Governor-General for
LOUVERTURE THAT life of Hispaniola, abolished slavery and established the constitution of 1801
which established the following laws:
ISSUED THE NEW LAWS He was governor-general for life
Voodoo was outlawed
OF SAINT DOMINGUE
People had to work on plantations for minimum wage (and were allowed to
be whipped)
All people were French Citizens
Lands were concentrated into large estates
This constitution caused a huge uproar in the public as they felt that they
had no freedom of religion (as the Yoruba culture made up the majority of
the population) and that slavery had been established under a new name.