Summary

From this point onwards, Toussaint “and the blacks were henceforth the decisive factors in the revolution” (144). Toussaint was a French officer in command of an army of more than 5,000 people, many of whom were Africans born outside the colony. While the army was underfed and under-armed, there is no record of significant desertion. To maintain morale, Toussant used “the slogans of the revolution” (liberty and equality) with “a fencer’s finesse and skill” (149).

However, as James notes, Toussaint’s power was correlated with his influence over the masses. At the time, in the late 1790s, all the blacks on the island were filled with a sense of pride at being French citizens: “Devotion to the Republican and a hatred of royalty and all that it stood for fills the documents of the time” (154). Toussaint also refocused attention on the...