The Hidden Jewel History

In my previous blog, I promised to expose the hidden gems to you. Today, I have a great pleasure to talk about, "Haiti's Revolution." We all know that Haitian Slaves revolted against the French; that is partially truth. For those who do not know; Haiti was occupied by three different nations at the same time, (British, French, and Spanish).

In 1789, the slave population was close to about 500,000.  They were 30,000 free Black people.  I should not forget to mention that they were three groups of African descent: Those who were free, those who were enslaved, and those who run away to hide far in the mountains and later called the Maroons.  Half the 30,000 free African descent were Mulatto, (mixed race) and many were wealthy.  

 On August 21, 1791, the enslaved rebellion started in the plantations where the slaves were being tortured, mutilated, buried vertically up to their neck and honey was poured on their heads, so and so forth.  Imagine being bit by bees, ants, and cannot do anything about it until death?  During the rebellion, the White had risen high taxes on the wealthy mulattos, which cause them to join the rebellion and finally the Maroons had joined as well. 

At that point, the decision was made to liberate the whole country of "Ayiti meaning,(Land of high mountains, name previously giving by the Taino Indians). Unknown to the French, the majority of the Haitian slaves, were African tribal warriors.  They had fought many tribal wars before being captured by the French Colonizers.  While fighting the French, in 1794, the Haitian Slaves attacked the Spanish as well; with little resistance, The Spanish were forced to leave Haiti or Ayiti in April of 1794. 

With the Adrenaline pumping through their veins, the Haitians continued their fight with the French Army for the next three years. In 1797, Toussaint Louverture, with a unit of 51,000 soldiers attacked the English Army.  Once again, (A war within a war), since they were located  in two different parts of Haiti: Central and Northwest , Toussaint had divided his unit into two and attacked both locations at once.  Within little time, Toussaint Louverture and his men captured the Central territory. 

The hardest battle had taken place at Mole-St-Nicolas, in the Northwest of Haiti where finally, Major Maitland, the head the British Army, after losing thousands of soldiers in the war and through fever, had decided to concede.  On August 23, 1798, Major Maitland had honored Toussaint Louverture militarily for his bravery and turned over Mole-St-Nicolas to him.   In return, Toussaint Louverture, had pardoned all the captured British soldiers and their had left Haiti.    

As the battle continued, the Haitian soldiers with  their leader, Toussaint Louverture, captured the French general Hedouville in Cap Haitian, North of Haiti, did not kill him but shipped him back to France on October 23, 1798.  

From the North, Toussaint Louverture and his unit had decided to go to the South East  more specifically (Jacmel) where once again, his army had triumphed.  After words, Toussaint and his unit had continued towards the South along the way, they had massacred many French soldiers and finally captured part of the South on December 1, 1798.    

 

 

 In 1799, During a struggle between Toussaint Louverture and General Rigaud in the South, France had sent LeClerc to Haiti as a tough general to subdue the Haitians.  However, it did not take time for general LeClerc to find out the Haitians were unstoppable. 

On January 20, 1800, Alexander Petion  a high ranking soldier of Toussaint's unit had  joined with general Rigaud  to capture  Grand Goave  on March 11, 1800 from the French.  However, Toussaint Louverture, had continued towars the South until he had triumphantly entered the Capital, (Les Cayes).       

 As we read through this mind blowing piece, we can see the bravery, integrity, and morality of our previous generation of men. For example, Major Maitland's bravery to not only concede when he had realized that he could win the battle, but to military honored Toussaint Louverture. On the other hand, the dignity and integrity of Toussaint Louverture to pardon all the British war prisoners for them to return back to France.  Those were two extraordinary men of Valor.