Elpidio Valdes

Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. After arresting and deporting Toussaint Louverture from Saint Domingue in June 1802, the young French General Charles Leclerc was kind of surprised to discover the expulsion of General Toussaint did not immediately spark a mass uprising. The cultivators in the fields had long ago grown disenchanted with Governor for life…

Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. For all the attention First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte had taken to arrange the massive expedition he hoped would soon recapture Saint Domingue. When the Peace Preliminaries were signed with the British in October 1801, he had yet to settle on a commander in chief for the campaign, but by the…

Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. So, last time, we closed the books on the Haitian revolution, which, if you ask me, runs from the bucket on ceremony in August 1791 through to Dessalines speech, justifying his extermination of the whites in April 1804. I think those two events put handy brackets on the revolution. Now,…

Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. The Declaration of Independence, proclaimed by Jean-Jacques Dessalines on New Year’s Day 1804, which I hope everybody listened to, was much more a call to arms than a traditional declaration of political independence. And with the declaration composed in French, it is clear that Dessalines wanted the French to know…

Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. When we started this series on the Haitian revolution, I said that we’d be covering events from the initial revolts of 1791 through to independence. And as you may have noticed, today’s episode is called “Independence”. But don’t freak out. This is not suddenly the final episode of the series.…

Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. As the summer of 1800 drew to a close, Toussaint Louverture was at the pinnacle of his career. The dream he had been working towards since at least 1793 and very possibly since 1791, had finally come to pass. He had outmaneuvered all his native rivals, expelled any uppity French…

Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. So last week, Toussaint Louverture not only rid himself of Joseph de Hédouville, the Directory’s official emissary to Saint Domingue, 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…

Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. So we left off last time with the reaffirmation by the Directory in January 1798, that liberty and equality would remain core pillars of colonial policy. But if you’ll recall, the third pillar to the Directory’s colonial policy was unity. The goal of the Thermidorian Republic was to totally integrate…

Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. As 1797 dawned, Toussaint Louverture was arguably the most powerful man in Saint Domingue. But though he may have been the most powerful man, that did not make him the only powerful man. His influence did not extend into territory held by his ally, André Rigaud, nor to territory held…

Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. In November 1795, news finally reached Saint Domingue of the incredible turn of events back in Europe that we ended with last week. Spain is out of the war. In the all important North Province of Saint Domingue, this news would change everything. Since August 1791, the slave armies of…