The Black Jacobins summary

In San Domingo, the slaves did all the work, which made the colony prosperous. Above them were a whole host of social classes which profited from this labor.

At the top of the social structure were members of the French bureaucracy, which included the governor of the island and his administrators. They ran the colony on behalf of the French crown.  

For as long as the system of African slavery had been in place, the slaves themselves had resisted it. It is a common misconception today that slaves were servile and resigned to their fate; in fact, many were not.

At every stage of their journey from capture in Africa to working on the plantations, slaves fought against their captivity. For example, at the port in Africa where the slaves were loaded onto the ships bound for the Americas, so many fought back that they had to be chained together for the entire journey.    

The French Revolution, which began in 1789, had three main ideals: liberte, egalite et fraternite (liberty, equality and fraternity). It was largely in pursuit of these ideals that the French middle- and lower-classes challenged the autocratic French monarchy.

The ideals soon spread to San Domingo, and with them came the revolution. The poorer white colonists along with many of the richer ones challenged the French bureaucracy for power. They demanded, as their brothers in France had, increased political and economic rights. And as there were very few French royal forces on the island, they soon overcame any resistance.

The French revolution had challenged the ideas of slavery and racism with its central aim of liberte, egalite and fraternite. Now the slaves needed a strong leader to unite them and turn them into a powerful force.

They found this leader in a slave called Toussaint L’Ouverture.

After seeing the white and mixed-race colonists take up arms for their own freedom, the slaves of San Domingo, the lowest members of colonial society, fought back. In July, 1791, they revolted, overrunning the plantations and villages of the colonists in many areas of the island.

The slaves were ruthless in their destruction. The brutal system of slavery had taught them the power of repression, violence and murder, and in their rebellion they replied in the same spirit. Terrible violence was committed by both the revolting slaves and the colonists who resisted them.

Very early in his role in the San Domingo revolution, Toussaint L’Ouverture determined that he would never sacrifice or compromise on one central ideal: he would settle for nothing less than the abolition of slavery.

This important central idea influenced his actions throughout the revolution. In fact, because of it, he and his armies fought alongside different “sides” throughout the conflict. For example, early on in the rebellion, the French government had backed the colonists against the slave revolt. To give his armies the best chance of succeeding against the French, Toussaint allied himself with the Spanish monarchy, which occupied the eastern half of San Domingo (modern-day Dominican Republic).

After the French Republic declared that slavery was abolished, Toussaint L’Ouverture allied himself with them. He worked under the colony’s French rulers, including a charismatic commissioner called Sonthonax who was popular among the black population. Together, they made for a powerful combination.

One of the enemies they fought together was Britain, the global superpower of its age. The British had their greedy eyes on the riches of San Domingo and were prepared to fight the French for it. Toussaint and his armies fought bravely against the British and were able to inflict defeat after defeat upon them. This resistance, coupled with diseases such yellow fever, cost the British just under 100,000 men, and in the end they were forced to give up their campaign.

It took a few more years for Toussaint L’Ouverture to fully establish his dominance over San Domingo. During this period, he had beaten another mixed-race rebellion and conquered the Spanish colony on the eastern half of the island, freeing the slaves there. It was only after this that he could begin to concentrate on reordering the society of San Domingo.

The difficulty for Toussaint was that the island had gone through 12 years of brutal civil war. In total, two thirds of the white population had been killed or left the island, and about 200,000 black people had died. A great many of the plantations and farms that had made the colony so prosperous lay in ruins.

It might be expected that Toussaint, a former slave who commanded an army made up mostly of former slaves, would seek his revenge on the whites.

Yet, throughout his leadership of San Domingo, he tried to protect the position of the white population in the colony. He promoted a position of racial tolerance on the island. For example, he would often be confronted by black supporters asking why white people still held positions of power. He would answer by mixing red wine and water in a glass and then, showing them the results, state, “We must all live together.”

Just as the position of Toussaint L’Ouverture was being weakened by a loss of support, a French army of 20,000 men sailed to San Domingo. This force had been sent by Napoleon Bonaparte, who had become the dictator of France.

Despite the independence of his actions, Toussaint had never severed the link between San Domingo and France. He respected French culture and the ideals of the revolution, and above all he cherished the 1794 decree of the French Republic abolishing slavery.

After Toussaint L’Ouverture’s arrest in 1802, the masses in San Domingo grew wary. Whatever many felt about his actions towards the end of his period in power, he was still seen as the man who had given the slaves their freedom.

French actions on a neighboring island were soon to make the situation much worse. Just as they had in San Domingo, the French overthrew a local leader in Guadeloupe, another of their colonies. But this time, they also began to reinstate slavery. Once this news got to San Domingo, the tense atmosphere on the island exploded into full-scale rebellion.

We often think of the French Revolution purely in European terms. We think of the terror of the guillotine in Paris and the battle between effeminate aristocrats and French peasants dressed in rags. We rarely think about its impact on a wider level.

Far from just being a European affair, the French Revolution inspired people across the globe. The revolution in San Domingo is a perfect example of this. It was here that the ideas of liberté, egalité and fraternité propelled one of the most oppressed populations in history to rise up and win their own freedom.