Sugar in the Blood: A Family's Story of Slavery and Empire by Andrea Stuart

Author:Andrea Stuart
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780307272836
Publisher: Knopf
Published: 2013-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

11

The history of liberty is a history of resistance.

—WOODROW WILSON

WHILE THE ISLANDERS strove to further consolidate their sugar empire, the outside world was once again nipping at their heels. As a result of the three successive wars that would be fought between Britain and France, the constant threat of invasion that had hung over the island for the last quarter of the eighteenth century would also persist for the next twenty-five years. There were also difficulties closer to home, as the second act of the Haitian saga began.

Under the guise of restoring order, the British, always covetous of this lucrative colony, landed troops on the island in 1793. They assumed an easy ride, but were to be profoundly mistaken. The recently freed slaves realized that if they wished to maintain their freedom, they would have to fight for it. Their ferocious bravery and determination intimidated the British armed forces, just as Toussaint L’Ouverture’s sophisticated guerrilla tactics had wrong-footed their generals. The slave armies were used to fighting in the torrid, mountainous conditions of Haiti, whereas the British in their flannel underwear and red wool coats were completely unprepared. Overwhelmed by the sheer number of slaves willing to die for their liberty, the British forces were eventually demoralized. Describing the fate of the British troops, one observer remarked that they were “like a vessel traversing the ocean—the waves yielded for the moment, but united again as the vessel passed.” The invading forces also had to cope with tropical diseases like malaria and yellow fever, while the transfer of soldiers to other conflicts in the region depleted their numbers further. By 1798 it was clear that the British army could not maintain its position and in October of that year the Union Jack was lowered and Toussaint, the “black Spartacus,” rode into the capital, Port-au-Prince, as the liberator.

In 1800, Toussaint L’Ouverture became governor of the island. Hearing of his victory, slaves in the nearby island of Jamaica sang gleefully: “Black, white, brown, all de same!” Over the next couple of years Toussaint proved himself to be not just a formidable warrior but also a thoughtful statesman. Working with his multiracial team that included black army officers, mulatto administrators and white advisers, including Age, his white chief of staff, he managed to stimulate trade, boost agriculture and construct roads and schools. But it was the constitution promulgated in 1801 that was most extraordinary. It declared: “There cannot exist slavery in this territory, servitude is then forever abolished. All men are born, live and die free and French.” Not only had Haiti become the first slave nation in the New World to liberate itself, Toussaint had created a blueprint for a society in which freedom reigned, and access to education combined with the willingness to work hard meant that equal opportunities were open to all. It was no wonder that the slave world exulted or that the planters of the region continued to watch the events there with profound concern.

But the struggle on Haiti was not over.

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