French general Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Vimeur, Vicomte de Rochambeau
decisively defeated at the Battle of Vertières, 1803
by general Jean-Jacques Dessalines
In 1791, after it became clear that the French Revolution would not encompass the
freedom of slaves in Haiti, the slaves in Haiti staged a revolt known as the Haitian
Revolution. The British attempted to gain control of the slaves in Haiti, but were
thoroughly defeated in 1797/1798. In 1793, France sent as an envoy Léger-Félicité
Sonthonax to Haiti to halt the Haitian slave revolution.
In 1801, Toussaint L'Ouverture defeated the remaining Spanish in Santo Domingo and emancipated
the slaves. In 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte sent French troops and Polish soldiers
1, 2, 3 to Hispaniola, including Napoleon's
brother-in-law General Charles Leclerc. Leclerc asked to meet L'Ouverture to discuss "terms". It
was a deception and Louverture was seized and deported to France where he died in April 1803.
Jean-Jacques Dessalines continued the independence struggle. As a result of the following Battle
of Vertières 4, 5 in 1803, France was
decisively defeated. On January 1804, Dessalines declared independence for Saint-Domingue and
renamed the new nation "Haiti".
Thus the Haitian Revolution was a definite threat to slave plantations in the British West
Indies, including Antigua. Recall that William Pitt the Younger, 1759-1806, introduced his "Terror"
which caused fear in England. While Pitt opposed a revolution in England he also did not want an
anti-slave rebellion. Fear was a concern to people such as Bluestocking Jane Austen.
1
Girard, Philippe; "The Slaves Who Defeated Napoléon: Toussaint L'Ouverture and
the Haitian War of Independence, 1801-1804", p. 266
In Haiti, there exists Poloné (or La Pologne) descendants of Poles that were sent
there as a military legion by Napoleon in 1802–03. Polish soldiers saw how the Haitian
slaves lived: not so different than the Haitian slaves. These Polish soldiers appealed to
Dessalines to join the Haitian slave Revolution. Dessalines described the Polish appeal,
saying that the Poles were the "the white niggers of Europe".
2
ibid., p. 207
"The Poles could not shake the impression that they might be Saint-Domingue's Russians,
fighting against some Caribbean boyar's serfs."
3
ibid., p. 228
"... with a smattering of Czechs..."
4
ibid., p. 308
5
ibid., p. 317
"... Polish transplants built a gunpowder manufacture ..."
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