v28_1629 - 1 sol dit "à la table de loi" 1801 Lec.11

SANTO-DOMINGO

(1792-1802)

The colony of Santo Domingo is the most flourishing of the French colonies. The National Assembly grants the mulattoes equal rights on October 12, 1790. The whites refuse this decision and it is the beginning of the secession of the island and the civil war which lasts until 1804: "maroon niggers "against white planters. The Cap Français is delivered to the flames for the first time and Governor Laveaux shares power with Toussaint Louverture who is elevated to the rank of brigadier general. On July 1, 1801, he declared independence and compared himself to Bonaparte. The First Consul sends to Santo Domingo an expeditionary force of 22,000 men commanded by General Leclerc, Pauline's husband. The French landed at Cap Français on February 4, 1802 and began a campaign of repression. Dessalines and Toussaint submit. Toussaint was deported to France where he died the following year. The army is decimated by yellow fever from which Leclerc dies. De Rochambeau, successor to Leclerc, could not prevent Dessalines from proclaiming independence on January 1, 1804 and having all the whites still on the island massacred..