Toussaint Louverture, the Cultivator System, and Haiti’s Independence (1798–1804)

When the Haitian Revolution entered its final years, the leaders of this French colony had to grapple with two main questions. First, should they grant the newly emancipated slaves full control over their lives, or should they curtail the freedom of field hands in the name of economic recovery? Second, should Haiti (Saint-Domingue) remain under direct French rule, or should it seek some political autonomy or even outright independence? Toussaint Louverture, who dominated Saint-Domingue’s politics from 1798 until his exile in 1802, embraced a middle course, forcing field hands to toil as semi-free cultivators on their old plantations while maintaining loose political ties with France. Napoléon Bonaparte, who sent massive expeditions to French Caribbean colonies in 1802, tried to reinstitute direct French control over the colonial empire; he also restored slavery in Guadeloupe and French Guiana and seemed poised to do the same in Saint-Domingue. Louverture’s successor Jean-Jacques Dessalines ousted French forces in 1803 and declared Haiti’s independence in 1804, albeit maintaining the cultivator system that restricted the freedom of freedmen.

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