Rare and important: a substantial first-hand account by a seventeen-year-old French soldier fighting in the Haitian Revolution. The manuscript includes lengthy descriptions of the destruction of Cap Français, the ruthless counterinsurgency, and the outbreak of yellow fever.
The Haitian Revolution was one of a series of revolutions in the late eighteenth century - American, French, and Spanish-American - that had wide, and deeply damaging, ramifications for traditional colonial powers. Led by Toussaint Louverture (1743-1803), it remains the sole successful rebellion by an enslaved nation.
Our author, sailor, and soldier, Auguste, provides an overview of the political situation in the wake of the Peace of Amiens [all quotes from the journal are in translation:] “The peace was meant to bring back commerce, which was the principal branch of prosperity of the state, and the first thought of the First Consul was of regaining the possessions of its colonies that England had returned to us and to force the holders of others to put themselves back under the laws of the Metropole, including those held by foreign powers or by the indigenous that the time and the unhappiness of war had habituated to independence. In the latter category was first and foremost the island of Saint-Domingue. The treaty had granted to us not only the French part of this island but also the part that belonged to the Spanish. It was thus resolved in counsel that France would arm in the three Oceanic ports, Brest, Rochefort, and Lorient, a fleet considerable enough to allow thirty-five to forty thousand men to embark to reconquer this colony.”
The mood was buoyant on the Mont Blanc, which was part of the fleet commanded by admiral Louis-Thomas Villaret (1747-1812) on the Saint-Domingue expedition. After eight years of victories on land and at sea, Auguste hoped for more of the same when they landed on the island. Indeed, despite numerous military victories on this expedition, this was a vicious war - replete with summary executions and massacres - and the actions of both sides were made worse by the yellow fever epidemic. These are described in great detail. As ever, there are quiet moments too. In these he relates the banal lives of soldiers and gives us descriptions of local inhabitants.
Of real interest is Auguste’s account of the second burning of Cap Français. Being the main commercial center of Haiti under colonial rule, important for its cultural legacy and large, fertile plains, Cap Français (later Cap-Haitïen) was an important symbol of both the French colonial power and the potential for Black self-rule. The city was first burned in 1791 as part of the initial uprising that marked the commencement of the Haitian Revolution. This was one of the important events that precipitated the proclamation by the French National Assembly that initially ended slavery on the island. A decade later, the semi-autonomous rule led by Toussaint Louverture had consolidated control on the island. Faced with an impending French invasion, his troops, led by his lieutenant and the future King of Haiti, Henri Christophe, made the decision to burn the coastal cities, and their inhabitants, rather than let the French establish a foothold.
Auguste and his detachment saw the flames of the city from afar, and the tale of the burning was reported as follows:
“In the night, we learned that the fire that we had seen the previous day was, correctly, the burning of the Cap Francois in front of which the naval army had presented itself the morning of the 15th in battle formation. The first two vessels that crossed over the bar in the reef were the Scorpion and the Patriot, which approached Fort Picolet and proceeded to bombard it. During this time, the other vessels from the army had entered into the bay and started to disembark. When Christophe learned that his hand was forced, he, without even telling the people of the town, set fire and in a moment the city erupted in flames that provided no possibility of escape. This was the second time that this city, so rich and so commercial, found itself destroyed since the start of the revolution. This time, one has to regret many people, goods of all types, provisions of all varieties, and even treasures buried in the ashes.”
Auguste is later sent to Cap Haitïen, where yellow fever was already prevalent. His account reads as follows:
“On the 30th, I disembarked to visit the city of the Cap, which I did not know. Or rather, I visited the city’s emplacement, as there hardly remained a dozen houses that had survived the conflagration. I thus saw only the public places, as well as the quays and the buildings associated with the port. Everything else was rubble from which there emanated a strong odour that had been fed by the first rains of winter, that horrid season into which we were entering. Several hundred men, both white and Black, were occupied with cleaning the rubble, but the debris was too considerable for the few people that were employed. This contributed in no small part to the development of miasmas which infected the air and transmitted the malady known as the yellow fever, which began to make itself known in the troops that had disembarked.”
Yellow fever has often been called Toussaint Louverture’s greatest ally in the fight against the French. Here Auguste describes both the death toll and the effects on the troops’ morale: “On the 24th and the following days, the yellow fever continued to cause us great difficulties. In less than a month we had lost more than forty men from our crew, and the leaders were not spared. We had just lost the excellent officer named Rabasse who had received his promotion to frigate captain, and we put, daily, two hundred whites in the Fosette [the cemetery at Cap Francais]. We made our prayers for departure. Eventually, at least three of his closest friends in the crew die of the epidemic.” Auguste credits his survival to advice given to him by a retired officer prior to his departure to eat bitter oranges twice daily, which he purchases from local merchants upon his arrival.
A further notable anecdote is the story of a week-long expedition into the hills above Cap Haitïen which one of his friends took part in, and describes the complicated tactics ordered by generals including Rochambeau, Leclerc, Magon, and Latouche Treville. As a sailor, the author is particularly focused on the comings and goings of ships in the Cap. While most of the vessels are French military ships, of particular interest are the recurring mentions of American ships, including one from Philadelphia, that traded with the French and supplied their efforts. Despite official American neutrality, this tacit support was helpful for the French and allowed them to prolong their campaign.
After a few months, Auguste has nearly lost all hope as yellow fever decimates his friends and fellow soldiers. Relieved to be sent home, his squadron arrives back in Brest Harbor alongside the ship carrying Toussaint Louverture to his untimely death.
The importance of the journal, written aboard the Mont Blanc, is only emphasised as we remember that 1802 was the year that Napoleon re-introduced slavery, specifically so as to help finance the fight against Louverture’s forces in Saint-Domingue. Just two years later the Republic of Haiti would be proclaimed.
Where letters describing individual moments of this Revolution appear on the market, journals such as this one rarely do. The manuscript comes with a full English translation.
Blackburn, R., “Haiti, Slavery, and the Age of the Democratic Revolution” in The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 63, No. 4 (Oct., 2006), pp.643-674.
