The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution

In northern San Domingo, pressure toward revolution mounted; James characterizes the slaves working on the plains of San Domingo as “closer to a modern proletariat than any group of workers in existence at the time” (86). In July 1791, Voodoo high priest Dutty Boukman led thousands of slaves near Le Cap in a coordinated attack. Angry and desperate, Boukman’s forces destroyed property, killed planters, and raped women but were never as cruel, in James’s view, as the colonists. After weeks of fighting, Boukman died in battle, and the slaves paused to regroup. Tens of thousands of recruits flooded in, including 45-year-old Toussaint. His intellect, athleticism, and experience as a steward earned him a position of influence early on.

Three commissioners arrived from France, hoping to resolve the conflict. After four months of fighting without breaking the colonists’ defenses, Jean François, Georges Biassou, and Toussaint, leaders of the slave rebellion, wrote an eloquent letter offering to surrender, on condition that 400 leaders of the revolution be set free. Unwilling to negotiate, and confident that they could defeat the slaves, the colonists refused to meet with Toussaint, instead communicating in writing or sending the commissioners as mediators.