The following interview appeared in the PBS documentary
“Africans in America.” In Part 3 (“Brotherly Love”)
Douglas Egerton, a Professor of History at Le Moyne
College, discussed the impact of the Haitian Revolution on
American society.
Modern Voices:
Douglas Egerton on the Haitian
Revolution, Toussaint L’Ouverture, and
Thomas Jefferson
[Adapted for Student Understanding]
Question:
What was the impact of the Haitian Revolution on Americans, black and
white? How did Americans perceive Toussaint? What did Jefferson
think about Haiti?
Answer:
All of the American newspapers covered the events in Saint Domingue
(Haiti) in great detail. All Americans understood what was happening
there. It wasn't that the revolution in Saint Domingue taught mainland
slaves [slaves living in the U.S.] to be rebellious or to resist their
bondage. They had always done so, typically as individuals who ran
away attempting to escape to the frontier… [or]… as groups that
established maroon societies [illegal slave communities established in
wilderness areas].
But the revolutionaries in Saint Domingue, led by Toussaint L'Ouverture,
were not trying to pull down the power of their masters, but join those
masters on an equal footing in the Atlantic world. And the revolt in Haiti
reminded American slaves, who were still enthusiastic about the promise
of 1776, that not only could liberty be theirs if they were brave enough to
try for it, but that equality with the master class might be theirs if they
were brave enough to try. For black Americans, this was a terribly
exciting moment, a moment of great inspiration. And for the southern
planter class, it was a moment of enormous terror.
The planter class was scared of L'Ouverture, and had no doubts that he
knew exactly how to get what he wanted. His name, L'Ouverture, is a
name that his soldiers applied to him. It meant this was a man who
always found his opening. In the southern white mind, Toussaint was a
terrifying but very competent figure. He was often depicted in southern
newspapers as sort of a black Napoleon, somebody who could always
find his opening, somebody who would always be successful in battle.
There was no doubt in the white mind that they were dealing with a very
fierce and very dangerous foe.
Although it's quite clear that Toussaint was deeply inspired by events
both in France and the United States, and some of his chief lieutenants
had in fact been on the American mainland with the French army during
the American Revolution, Jefferson was always the first to deny any sort
of revolutionary heritage to people other than whites of European
descent.
Jefferson was terrified of what was happening in Saint Domingue. He
referred to Toussaint's army as cannibals. His fear was that black
Americans… would be inspired by what they saw taking place just off
the shore of America. And he spent virtually his entire career trying to
shut down any contact, and therefore any movement of information,
between the American mainland and the Caribbean island.
He called upon Congress to abolish trade between the United States and
the independent country of Haiti. He argued that France still owned the
island. In short, he denied that Haitian revolutionaries had the same right
to independence and autonomy that he claimed for American patriots.
And consequently, in 1805 and finally in 1806, trade was formally shut
down between the United States and Haiti, which decimated the already
fragile Haitian economy. And of course, Jefferson then argued that this
was an example of what happens when Africans are allowed to govern
themselves: economic devastation, caused in large part by his own
economic policies.
Source: Douglas Egerton. PBS Interview: The Haitian Revolution,
Toussaint L’Ouverture, and Thomas Jefferson. Program: “Africans in
America” (Part 3), 1998.
Retrieved from: www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3i3130.html