65. When the Enslaved Took on Napoleon

This episode is brought to you by Wise. It's only when you start moving money between currencies that you really think about the exchange rate, the fee and what might be hidden away in the small print. Whether you're living abroad, paying someone overseas or just trying to manage your money across borders, you want a fair exchange rate and easy transfer and no surprises along the way. Wise keeps things simple. Wise is a smart way to move the currencies you need around the globe. It works in more than 160 countries and with over 40 currencies, most transfers arrive instantly. Wise uses the mid-market exchange rate like the one you see on Google with no markups or hidden fees. So when money needs to move, you can see the rate, know the fee and get on with it. Join millions saving billions on hidden fees by downloading the Wise app today. Be smart, get wise, TZs apply. Hello and welcome to Empire. I'm Anita Arnand. And I am William Drupal. Don't say the phone, just get on with it. No, no, I'm not. I will. You're right, because it just encourages you. I can see. I can see you all setting up to say some fancy, fancy, cool. Anyway, welcome back. Welcome back, having a presentation or a break time. It's been a long time coming Tuesday. So we are talking about Tussan Levittur and he is the most successful man as far as slave uprisings are concerned. He rises from really inauspicious beginnings and likes so many of the people we cover in this series. They are set parameters by slavery, which they should, by all rights, never be able to break out of, but they do. So Tussan Levittur is a humble, sickly child who is on the island of Sandermank, which is now known as Haiti. And he rises up from being just a shepherd boy to being somebody who comes under the tutelage of we like to think Morgan Freeman. He sees some sort of the scene as a wise old man of the hills who sees something in him and teaches him his letters. He then becomes embroiled in the first and aborted slave uprising, which is a bloody, awful affair. And then with the second run at this, rises and rises through the ranks and organizes a slave army, uniting different groups. And we talked about the different groups of their different interests, the mulattoes, the blacks. And on the other side, you've got the small whites and the big whites is complicated. So if you need a little refresher, go back to that last one. But we left you where he is now general, Levittur. And he has an army at his disposal. But in the background, the politics of France are looming large, not over just Europe, but the whole world. Exactly. So while all this is going on in Haiti, massive changes are a foot in Europe. The revolution has happened, the Bastille has fallen. And in 1791, a new constitution is completed. And the monarchy is still in place, although in late December, he now holds most of the power. And Louis XVI makes a show of supporting this constitution. But obviously inwardly, he is plotting against it and hoping that it's going to fail. And in June 1791, he tries to escape France, but he's caught, brought back. And in the aftermath of that, in November 1792, a secret cupboard is discovered in the Twillary Palace. And Louis's secret counter-revolutionary beliefs, all his correspondence with other other powers hoping to get rid of the revolution, is revealed. And he is brought to trial for treason and executed in the gullantine on the 21st of January 1793. Mary Antoinette follows him nine months later to the scaffold. So this changes everything. Immediately, Spain and Britain take the opportunity to declare war on revolutionary France. Now, in the island of Haiti, this means that Louis XVI, who's on the side, on the back foot against the French forces, has an ally in the Spanish. And very pragmatically, as it is, way throughout his life, he aligns briefly with the Spanish for one year. He joins the Spanish forces and gets their military help against the French. My enemy's enemy is my friend. But with this particular enemy, the Spaniards have a history of slavery too. So I mean, how does he put aside those fears? So throughout his life, he's very pragmatic. And he sees this as a way of getting the military up a hand. But there's further complications because the other force which has declared war on France now is Britain. And what that means in Caribbean terms is this is an excuse for the Royal Navy to start attacking all the French slave plantations and all the French islands. So Martinique and Guadeloupe are both attacked by the Royal Navy and taken. And the first British forces arrive on the shore of Haiti. So it's a complicated situation. And then in 1794, the news comes that the revolutionary government in France has abolished slavery. And this is the queue for Louis XVI to swap sides back to the French. And this is the moment now of his greatest glory. He defeats both the Spanish and the British. He drives the British out of the island. And he now is the big man. He has taken over the island. So William, he's driven out the British. He's driven out the Spanish. I mean, again, just the David and Goliath of this fight as well, shouldn't be skimmed over. He is still one man leading, okay, they're wearing smart uniforms, but they're not military men. These are slaves who have only recently, in the last few years, been freed. And he manages to push out two of the most martial forces in Europe. What about the French? Where are the French in all of this? In his affections and his thoughts and on his enemy lines? The minute that the French in Paris declare the end of slavery, everything changes for Leverto. Because he thinks of himself as French. He's only joined the Spanish as a pragmatic move. And he joins the French pro-revolutionary forces. He says, "I believe our only hope of this is in serving the French Republic." It's under that flag that we are truly free and equal. So he now really believes this rhetoric of the revolution that the slaves are going to be free. And is he right in trusting it? Because I mean, you know, liberty, fraternity, egality, that's fine for France and French people. But are they also thinking in terms of slaves as well? I mean, are they saying that we are abolitionists now? It's exactly the same debate that's going on at the same time in Britain. And you have in France a strong mercantile lobby who a lot of the people who are behind the revolution are middle class merchants. And they have a strong interest in slavery being maintained. So as in England, you've got different interests competing and trying to get a dominant position in power. And certainly in 1794, you have the assembly choosing to abolish slavery. Now this is not the end of the stories we'll see. And this will change. And Napoleon plays a very dark part in this in bringing back slavery. But that's for the future. For the time, yeah. Yeah, yeah, blowing and ending. That's not like you. Okay. But okay. So liberty now has control of Haiti. He's driven out those forces of the British and the Spanish. He's now dealing with the French in the belief that actually under the French trickler, his people too will be freed. Slavery is no more. But Lovitio does something else, which will end up being a weakness, creating a weakness in his in his side. And that is he realizes that, you know, they need money. He money to survive. So instead of getting rid of the plantation system, he actually makes this really hugely controversial for the people who feel like, you know, life should change. Tomorrow is the day after the revolution. Tomorrow, we will be free. Men tomorrow, our lives get better. But Lovitio keeps the plantations going. He calls the people who were, you know, yesterday slaves are now laborers. So they do get paid. But their conditions, their hours, their treatment arguably is no better than it was when they were slaves. They're free. They're getting a wage, but they're not enjoying their lives. It's a harsh regulation. He sets out 5 a.m. in the morning until 5 in the evening. They have to work. And remember, again, just as we said in the first episode, Haiti is the richest place in the new world at this point. Extraordinary thought. It's producing hugely valuable amounts of cotton, tobacco, and most of all sugar. And it's a huge contributor to the French economy. Now, a lot of this is obviously been damaged by the uprising, by plantations being burned, by the anarchy and the different wars that have gone on. But it still has the ability to turn itself around. And Lovitio's view is that he wants to be in charge of a rich, flourishing country and the people have got to work. So he's moved now from, in a sense, the easy thing of rebelling against the old regime to the much harder thing of having to keep the whole thing together. as leader. I mean, there's a problem a lot of other people are facing at the time in people like Washington who they can prosecute a war, they're very good, but actually running sort of a cabinet of a bag of cats is very, very difficult. Politics is a different game, but literature centralises power and he's sort of hungry to keep a hold of it in a way that Washington who wants to retire under his own tree and contemplate life after the revolution does not. Literature wants to hang on, and it's a really interesting CLR James who we mentioned in the first episode, he's written a marvellous book about literature, says he made himself into a whole cabinet like a fascist dictator except he actually did the work, which I think is a really powerful line. So we see this whole new side of literature emerging now, and he's no longer the general up in the mountains, organising ambushes and riding from one place to another. He's sitting in a bureaucratic office working five secretaries simultaneously sending out letters in all directions, and he is a great writer at this and both CLR James and Sudia Hussari Singh in their set probabilities have been able to mine these letters for his story. And there are crucial resource, he's a meticulous correspondent, important letters take several drafts, he scrutinises every word that's conveyed, he's also telling everyone that his letter is not going to be delivered, so he often sends follow-up letters and it's from these letters at this point, we really get an impression of who he is, both in a political sense and in a personal sense. So politically you see him championing causes of those needs, so a widow is looking to him to have her family property returned, or a plan to whose animals have been stolen goes to him and asks for some form of compensation, even a Jean-Dame who's been slapped by Captain quotes in breach of his human rights, but we also get glipses of his private self and his life, he's very concerned for the education of his children, who he sends off education in France, he has his passion for horses and for roses, he loves his flowers. He takes a huge pride in his personal hygiene, while he's very spartan in his eating habits, he's quite sort of rubbish in his dressing, and he's constantly writing letters about dispatching fresh clothes and towels to him when he's on the move. Clothes, towels, perfume, permaid, that's who he is. Loaves of bread, he's very keen on a fresh baguette, to be honest, who isn't? The French do bread, like no one else does bread. One last thing, music, he loves music, and one of his early letters shows him overseeing the formation of a little orchestra with a trumpet and a clarinetist, which is a lovely detail. That is a lovely detail. But also it's sort of interesting to note, so he sends his children to France, and France is very happy to let him get on with it, because for them, otherwise the tap to the riches part of their empire will be turned off, at least if they have a man, a sympathetic man in charge, they kind of, you know, they don't mind, they let him get on with it. So he said this really weird position, where the people he has led and promised freedom to us, starting to chave, because their life is no better. And the French, who he let an army against, you know, are saying, "Yeah, good on you, literature. Carry on." But of course, what the French love is the fact that he's defeated the British. The British actually spent a fortune trying to defeat him and capture Haiti. They've apparently spent 2.6 million in 1796 alone, which is a colossal sum. And they've lost against his well-trained, ex-lave forces, 80,000 soldiers. So it's a major dent in British prestige, and literature can take the credit for this. And this gives him enormous credit in France. Although he's opposed France at one point, although he's risen up, and he's been part of this uprising, the French prepare to embrace anyone who defeats the English and so. Yeah, I mean, it's so, it's interesting. He turns, you know, almost overnight from villain and, you know, one of them is hated and feared. And you know, all of those voodoo mysticisms that surround him in the propaganda in France to being sort of a bit of a poster boy, because, you know, he kicked British, but the British on the other hand are demonizing this man, because he has humiliated them in many ways. There's a lovely quote by a man called Philip Roomb, who writes his superiors in Paris, in a sense to explain to them what an important figure to sort is and why they need to embrace him. He writes, "This is a rebel whose will commands the ascent of nine tenths of the population of Santa Man, a rebel whose courage, discipline, and strategic intelligence in the conduct of colonial war have overcome the might and ruses of the British, a rebel who hardly ever sleeps and seems to multiply himself and be present in many different places at the same time. A rebel who knows the ideal locations for ambushes in every part of the territory, which is littered with mountains, rivers, and passes. A rebel who commands." So, one will quote. But to have that kind of command, to have that kind of authority, he has to start making some really very difficult, and again, they don't please his own constituency decision. So, he wants to consolidate territory. Now, he's looking at the Milato territories. And he's saying, "Actually, I don't trust these people anymore, I don't trust them. We need to get rid of them." And he appoints a very important man who's going to be very important to the story of Haiti, Decelene. And he says, "Right, I need you to go and purge the Milato territories." But Decelene just far overshoots the mandate. He goes rugged completely overboard with Decelene. Well, I mean, he shoots 300 prisoners, and then he shoots another 50. And that is at that point. Two or so level two is absolutely horrified because this is not what he wanted. He says. And these are his words. "I said to prune the tree, not uprooted." It's a lovely, it's a lovely thing that I love that. So, again, I mean, I'm just pointing out the weird, weirdness of political square dancing that goes on at this time. You know, the French are for him. They hated him. He was 24 hours before. The French landowners, you know, the plantation owners, they are also bizarrely for him because he's somehow making the land still work because he's getting people to work. And the people who work on the fields are starting to have their doubts about him because they, you know, in his name, there are Milatoes being executed. And also their lives are crap still. This is the fascinating thing about him is, you know, he's a realist, he's terribly pragmatic. And he genuinely wants this to be a flourishing colony. He now believes in the ideals, the revolution, he's been reading this literature which preceded the revolution and the ideas of freedom and equality are ones that he embraces. And now that the government in Paris has abolished slavery, he's doing all he can, to turn Haiti into a model plantation system whereby, and trying to find a way whereby he can keep the economy going, keep the plantations going, but ends slavery. And he's trying to satisfy all the different interests groups. He realizes that without the plantations, he can't maintain this. You can't run a country on slogans, you can't, and this is a new country. The problem is though, you know, that's fine. That is pragmatic for a leader, but you've still got people who've had enough. So you know, he does a deal with the plantation owners, a quarter of the crop share is going to go to the people who work the fields, but that's, first of all, that's not much. Second of all, the take up is so low that a lot of the labourers are saying enough with this, up with this I will not put, and they're running away from the plantations. So his discipline, it becomes even more draconian, and that doesn't win him any more friends that he keeps. He's hemorrhaging friendship here among people who worshiped him, even though, you know, it is different in respect of the fact they are offered a wage, which they never would have been when they were slaves, it's still not enough. And we said at the beginning how he is quite a austere figure, personally. He doesn't eat much, he's extremely disciplined, and he tries to promote this personal discipline onto his people. He makes speeches about personal industry, social morality, civic pride, free trade, public education, religious toleration. And all these people whose backs are broken say shut up, shut up. You've been reading too many books. Yes, shut up. My back hurts. My hands are sore. I want to go to sleep and I'd like to have more to eat. I mean, the words do not fill up a stomach. I mean, you know, again, the Prelude to the French Revolution, you can say all the pretty words you want, you can make all the promises, but if people are hungry and fed up and tired, it's not going to cut any ice. But it works up to a point. He gets the agriculture and the profits of the island up to about two-thirds of the level they were before the end of slavery. In other words, it's generating huge income. This is a very rich place again, having been in Anarchy for almost a decade. He's now got the economy up and running. The plantations are delivering sugar and tobacco and cotton and he starts spending this money on schools. So he's a good leader. You know, he's educating people. He understands all these things. He is. I mean, he's doing good. is doing, I always think about literature, is, you know, he. He does his best, as he sees best, but it's not always the best thing he could have done. - Well, it's always popular. I mean, he does that thing that, you know, the great leaders do of taking important and unpopular decisions, so he understands the importance of having. - And you can take unpopular decisions when you have sort of, I suppose, you know, you've banked up enough credit. But again, these are people who are only recently freed. Well, come back to that, because it might explain why literature so often is overlooked for Desaline in a certain quarters in the Caribbean. Desaline is the hero and we haven't spoken much about him, but we will come back to him. But Desaline, the man who executed 350 people without, you know, losing any sleep over it, will eventually eclipse Tisong in the pantheon of heroes for the Caribbean. Tell me what the French are doing, because it's Napoleon now, who is sort of running the imperial side of things. So what is Napoleon doing? Because Napoleon now is the, you know, the figurehead of the French, the muscularity of the French. What is he thinking or doing about all of this new power rising up? It will be quite fragile power rising up in the former colony. - Well, if Napoleon is your hero, and of course, both today and in the 19th century, he has many, many supporters. What he does to San Domingo, to Desaline and to the whole world of this revolution is not a happy story. Napoleon supports not only the revival of slavery, but the reconquest of this island. Because under Tisong, it has become now increasingly independent. He's making a lot of decisions himself. It's semi-detached from France. And, but a part wants him back. And he is, he's listening now to the many interests in France. So just saying, this is a vital part of our economy. You know, it's all very well talking about equality and liberty for whites, but the blacks need to be put in their place. We need to have them back in their plantations. And if we're going to succeed in this revolution, we need to reestablish everything. And I'm afraid to say that Napoleon supports them. - In many ways, you know, this is a tale of two novel cities, but two men who are starting two new countries at kind of a similar time. Because to all intents and purposes, Napoleon too is trying to forge a new republic. - This is a new country with lots of enemies who hate them, you know. - And there are those who argue that Lovato over plays his hand with Napoleon at France. - Well, speak more about that. What does he do? Why do people say that? - He just is anti-plomatic. He establishes himself as the, he wants to be a lifetime governor. He's throwing his weight around. And he's, you know, Napoleon has already used everyone counter-towing to him in France. And he's, you know, and from Napoleon's point of view, he's not gonna have this ex-lave telling him where to get off. So Napoleon makes the decision to invade Haiti and to send an invasion force. And it doesn't just any old invasion force. He sends a huge fleet under his own brother-in-law. Victor Emanuel Leclerc, who's the husband of Napoleon's sister, Pauline. Even by the time of Napoleon's old age in exile in St Helena, he has realized that this was a massive mistake sending this invasion fleet. And in his letters and interviews, 'cause he's always receiving visitors and so on, in St Helena, he blames everyone else for the decision to attack Santa Ma. He blames the council of state. He blames Josephine and quit the shrieks of the colonial lobby for poisoning his relations with Tucson's regime. But this is, I think, a classic piece of retrospective justification in truth, responsibility lies with him and it's he that puts massive resources into this reconquest of the most profitable of all French colonies. - Yeah, I just, just before we go to the break, I mean, I don't, we sort of quibble quite a lot about pronunciation in the first episode of. I always was brought up to say St Helena. Is there Helena? I've learned a thing. - Is it Helena, St Helena? - Oh, anyway. - We're out, so I'm gonna come up to smell. - I'm sure there's more than this. - Okay, well, I have any other mispronunciations today. I think you might be right to say, I'm looking at you again, St Helena. - Okay, it's time to turn that into my ringtone. I think you might be right. Join us after the break. - I don't say it often. (dramatic music) - We are getting in statement from the 10th of that flight with 350 visitors on guard. - A great game, strategic struggle between Britain and Russia. - We assess Prime Minister with high confidence it was Russian. - Holden DeRussian's accountable is world war story. - They took down a British passenger jerk containing 350 people. - Man in the Kremlin is playing Alex. 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If you're just joining us before the break, William, the most important thing he said was, I think you might be right. - I can't say that, I'm gonna play it back. It's now not just my ring tone, it's my doorbell. Okay, so we've got Napoleon. And this, I think this is really interesting because there are voices trying to reassure Napoleon that Lovitura is a man worth doing business with. I mean, he sends out an emissary to go and sort of size up to Lovitura, a man called Charles Vincent, who says, actually, you know what, calm down. There's no man more attached to the ideal of French republicanism than this man. But Napoleon, I mean, as you say, I don't know whether it's a racial thing or it's just a slaves don't tell me what to do. - I think it is partly racial thing. Napoleon does not lie blacks. It's very clear, you know, since many of Napoleon's supporters would love to make him different. He's, you know, slightly chachillion in his attitudes here. - Yeah. - And, you know, he's not a big man on racial equality at all, Napoleon, and he hates Lovitura for resisting him. - Okay, and also, I mean, the hatred for Lovitura is kind of growing, so you've got Napoleon. But I think let's just circle back just for one moment for we go on with what happens with the clash of the French. He's just busy losing friends. I mean, we talked about, you know, the people are running away from his plantations who just don't like, you know, the things that he feels have to be done to keep this new country alive. But you've also got Desilene, now the man who he censored for, you know, massacring 350 people, the Milatos. Desilene is now getting really irritated with him too, because unlike other slave rebellions in the past, Lovitura does not want to purge the island of white people. He believes very much that there should be, this is a new place. Sort of, I often think about it as sort of like Mandela, you know, sort of coming out of Robin Island and people are expecting all sorts of retribution, but he doesn't do that. He says, you know what, we've got a new country, a new start. Can we get past this and build this together? Desilene doesn't like this. Desilene doesn't trust these people who, you know, with reason who have been enslaving and torturing his people for such a long time. So you've got him chafing, I'm just sort of thinking about all this bubbling discontent that Tusson Lovitura is sitting on top of, while facing off against one of the greatest generals in the world at the time. - I think you're absolutely right. And there's this moment when someone who's been a strong opponent of Lovitura comes to him for a job, a white former plantation owner, and previously he said he couldn't work under the blacks, and then he goes to Lovitura for a job, and Lovitura invites him in and says, of course, you know, he's big enough to forgive people. And he wants to give the whites a second chance, and he raises a lot that they can bring to the island that, you know, they understand the economy, they understand the, they're better educated than the blacks, and he thinks his new country needs them. But you're right, there's a whole lot of people that think this is an error that the whites should be driven out, and that he's got, he's too soft on the whites, and he's too fond of France. He said his children for education, they think he's sold out. I mean, he just sounds like such a sort of decent kind of man. I'm worried for him at this point. I am worried for him. Well, you've got every reason because the fleet, which has left breast under Napoleon's brother-in-law, is sighted on the 29th of January 1802. The leaderships of the French fleet are sighted on Cape Samana, on the northeast corner of the island. And to some of this point is rather like sort of, you know, church. in 1942 or something, he's visiting the coastal defenses, he's having obstacles erected on beaches, building up forts, and he's inspecting his naval fences, preparing for some sort of small French reaction to this. What he sees to his horror is not some small French reaction, but an enormous battle fleet, at least 25 full-scale naval vessels, each large enough to carry a thousand men. And as he gazes at the horizon, he can see the silhouettes of a dozen more warships, heading for Saint-Domain, he has this awful sinking feeling that he's taken on far more than he can manage. This is on a tactical show of force, this is a full-scale, he thinks war of extermination against him and his people, and he turns to his officers and declares we must perish. All of France has come to Saint-Domain, they've come to seek vengeance. So I mean this is just so dramatic, you know, a man who's been healed by hope, who's been driven by this higher cause, this vision, is suddenly seeing overwhelming odds coming towards, I mean again it's sort of like Tolkien-esque isn't it? It's just like thinking, it's one of those, you know, so the hordes of Mordor and the mass of these ships appearing out of the haze of their eyes on. No, but, you know, where a lesser man would break at this point, and certainly, you know, from that amazing quote that you've just given us, most people would break, but he doesn't break, does he? What does he do instead? He decides to do, well, would you call it burnt earth is it? When the way he decides to destroy his own land and leave no quarter for the French on the plains, and he's going to retreat to the hills and go back to what he used to do, which is fighting organized colonial armies with guerrilla tactics. And he refuses to submit, he burns down the capital, cap, and there is this battle at Cret Apeiro, and the French do eventually take the thought that his men are manning, but they suffer colossal losses, plus there's yellow fever around. So the veiding force begin to sicken in the climate, and he's watching this, he's got spies everywhere, he knows exactly what's going on. I mean, against such extraordinary odds, the things that are in his favour are that he's smart, so he knows terrain. He's also got hidden caches of weaponry up in those mountains that the French do not understand. He also has a huge, I mean, although, you know, people are turning against him, he has a huge loyal network of messengers. So he knows, you know, where and when the French are going to strike, maybe sometimes even before they even thunk it, you know, and that sort of adds that mystical power, you know, he's here, he's there, he's everywhere. You know what I mean? He's there. Also, all his suppositions about what Napoleon is up to prove, right? New starts coming in that Bonaparte has restored slavery in Martinique, Tobago, and St. Lucia, followed by Guadalupe and Guadalupe. So all these islands, which had seen the slaves freed, one by one, five islands now have gone back to the old plantation slavery system, the whips cracking, the whites are back in charge, the chains are rattling, and he knows that this is the only option. It may be terrible odds. This may be Napoleon's finest troops under his own brother-in-law, but he has no option, but go to the hills and begin to do what he does best, which is his guerrilla warfare. And according to his biographers, this spring campaign of 1802, when he takes on Napoleon's forces, and it lasts 70 days, that this in a sense is his most brilliant military achievement. Can I just say, just an observation, you know, we often comment about how things are not taught. I have never heard of, you know, Napoleon and his slaving, and his slaving attitude. And pushing free people back into slavery. You know, it is always all about the British, it's always about his heroism, stochasticism, or his evil, depending on which part of the world you live on, but it's all in relation to Britain and France, and there's this whole side of him that I wonder if the French even talk about it. When I was researching for this podcast, I came across a fascinating New Yorker article published a couple of years ago at the same time that Sir Dier has are saying amazing black Spartacus was published in France. And exactly what you said was what this article was pointing out, that although he's not an unfamiliar figure in France, and there has been a television series on the black Spartacus, and he's better known than he is in Britain. This whole side of Napoleon, putting the free slaves back in chains, is simply not part of the French curriculum. And the French, I think, are as ignorant about their empire and the dark side of it as we are in Britain. I mean, I know, no nation likes to think of itself in a negative light. And this is something that a lot of European countries have to face up to. It's not just Britain, it's obviously Belgium, Italians, Italians, you know, not talk about the things that their empire did in Eritrea or Ethiopia and so on. And I think, you know, the same sort of pattern that we're seeing here in Britain with this slow acknowledgement of the dark side of empire, something that is happening in other countries too. And Leverto is a huge part of that in France. If you aren't living in France, I mean, we'd love to hear from you actually about how much you do know, how much you are taught, how much he is discussed. I mean, get in touch with this. What's our email? I always forget our email, what is it? EmpirePod [email protected]. Thank you. So, okay, look, we've been in this kind of situation before, you know, where we have rebels who are rising up against an imperial power, who are fighting off enormous odds. And particularly when we covered Indian history, William, you know, sometimes, you know, these, these rebels and the rebel leaders are betrayed by those close to them because deals are done. But this does not happen here. This doesn't happen here. This is what's really unusual. So, so, you know, whereas in India, you have sort of minor kings, so minor Maharajas who are bought off or promised such tracks of land if they turn or people from one part of the country who are promised great things, I'm sure those deals are trying to be made, but even though they've had their doubts about Lovature, they do not. His men do not turn against him. This is something that impresses the French. But his brother-in-law, Le Clèque, has a secretary who keeps a diary of this campaign. And you see this man's admiration for Lovature just grow with every day. I'll just read you something from his diary. He says, "Pressed against the rocks and hidden in trees at our arrival and departure, these men followed and proceeded our marches across the woods where they could guide themselves through tracks of which only they knew and were able to find in the darkest of nights by relying on natural starlight. Tussan was sent his orders to his competence at the most unexpected moments through these men. They never betrayed his secrets. And his orders were scrupulously executed no matter what they were as if he were present." Is that great? That's his enemy right? Yes, again, I always think the words of the enemy are more powerful in a way than the words of your friends. So Tussan is everywhere at this time. He's pushing himself and his men to their physical limits. He draws on all that he's learned of guerrilla warfare and his military experience. He's constantly on the move, apparently sleeping on a plank. I love that detail for a few hours every night. And he plays this game. He sends the French on long and exhausting marches to chase him across the mountains, but always remains out of reach. He leaves just enough space so that they can follow him and then he'll leave them up a mountain and down the other side and will always be one stage ahead. They'll find his fires of his camps, but they never see him. And he has his concealed caches and weapons that he's put there waiting for him. And he mercilessly harasses the French who are now beginning to suffer from disease. And one French commander writes that he was, and this is a quote, losing a lot of men to the rebels every day. They are dispersed in the woods and the mountains. They kill all our stragglers on the roads. They attack our columns and swiftly retreat thanks to their perfect familiarity with the local areas. And Tussan knows exactly where to have their ambushes, exactly where to to spring. And so the French decide there's no way that they can obey Napoleon's orders and capture this man, because the brilliant is given orders not just that he wants this man defeated, he wants him brought back to a live. And so Leclerc decides to try treachery. Now Leclerc to stretch again, just in case you know there's so many names of flying out you, is Bonaparte's brother-in-law. He is the proxy of Bonaparte. So he has all power to do whatever he thinks is right. And in 1802, after this campaign has been going on a while, Napoleon writes to him reminding him of the secret instructions, specifically asking that that Louis Vuitton and what he calls the Prince simple brigands be deported to France as soon as the black citizens have been disarmed and slavery reintroduced. And Leclerc realizes that he can't possibly do do it by any honorable means. And so he sets a trap. And this is a terrible moment. He invites Toussaint to meet him in the Georges plantation with one of their local commanders. And this guy Brunei, who purports to Mr. Seerfriend, writes to Toussaint, offers him protection. And in what is his last letter as a Fremar, Tussar reaffirms his commitment to the public good, expresses his willingness to help, provides he says that he is treated with honor. But honestly, the last thing on the mind of the French Le Clèque is all set to spring this track. And the great question people ask is how on earth did Tussar fall for this? According to the folklore of Haiti, Tussar had gone to a voodoo spiritualist to ask for a prediction of what's going to happen and he's told he will be betrayed and captured. And yet still, he goes with just three men to meet the French. And previously they've had other parties and he's come with 300 men, fully armed, all set to defend him. But at this occasion, maybe he's over-confident and unclear why on earth he did this. Too trusting, maybe he really does believe this man is a good man, an honorable man, because he has a great honor code himself. He has honor code himself and he admases the French. This is the thing. Although in the sense now he's known for setting up the process by which the first free post-colonial state is set up. He during his lifetime is actually always willing to keep friends with us, if they give him honor, if they give him autonomy, he wants to be part of France, but that is not what's going to happen. So the trap is snapshot around literature, predictably if you only turn up with three men. And he is put in shackles, he's put on a ship. The ship almost immediately sets sail for breast. The time on his ship, the time on this crossing is hellish for him, he's confined in the cabin. We should say that his servant, his wife, his nieces and his son, who are nearby, are also seized, and even before the ship sets off, the French go to looting spree at Toussaint's own property at Henry and steal his clothes, his furniture, and his works of art, because he's a great connoisseur. And they take this, they shove it on the ship. They keep him in a cabin separate from his wife. He's not allowed to see any member of his family, he's separate, he knows there. He knows there are just a few feet away, but he can't see them, he can't hold them, he doesn't know how terrified Suzanne, his wife, is. And it's hell for him, because this is a country that chops people's heads off in public. And men and women have their heads chopped off in public. So he's fretting about his wife more probably more than himself. And on the 9th of July, they finally reach breast, and it's quite clear from the minute he's received that there's going to be no letting up of the pressure. And the authorities do everything in their power to break him both physically and psychologically. He's not allowed, as we said, to talk to his family. And he's sent off deliberately, I think, to the coldest place in France, to the juror mountains, which is known for its cold weather, and also its remoteness from the sea, because they still think he has such a reputation that this guy's going to do a. He had eaten he and their peers somewhere else, exactly. Or also, he does write to Bonaparte directly begging him to spare his wife. And this is the words that he uses. He writes of Suzanne, his wife. She is a mother who deserves the indulgence and goodwill of a generous and liberal nation. You know, still falling back on that ideal he has of France, that he truly brought into, and begging them to spare an innocent woman. And apparently, he's just not interested. He sends several more letters from the juror, from his high security prison where he's kept, because Le Clac warns Napoleon that if he should escape and he says he definitely will try to, and if he were to return to Sandema, his mere presence would set the colony a light. He's put on the top floor of the prison, kept in a cell, no reading material or visitors, and even his intake of sugar, which he makes into all his drinks, his own luxury is rationed, as is the word, to eat his cell. Yeah, again, the things that would break most people, but to some of it sure doesn't break. He's sort of, this is a, this is just a parade of degrading treatment that he faces, but he faces it with dignity, and some may even say with defiance, according to the later testimony of one of his guards, when he was stripped of his military outfit. He flings it at the officer who's told him to strip and says, take this to your master. It's a wonderful scene, tragic. So he's now, he's now falling apart. He can't take the cold. He's never been in a situation like this before. He's harassed by the prison authorities, there are night searches of his cell, and he loses weight. He begins to suffer from a chronic cough in the cold. He hasn't given enough wood, he hasn't given enough clothes. He complains of constant headaches and stomach pains. His very little medical assistance, and on the 7th of April, 1803, less than a year after he's docked at breast, the prison governor finds him dead in his cell, slumped by the father side. Gosh. I mean, that's all for, that's all for, you know. His body is buried in the fort chapel, where it remains, he's never, he's never, he's never taken back. He also, he dies a Catholic. That's, that's interesting. Do the French try and say he sort of dies a heathen, but that's, that's not true. I also, I mean, there is, you know, some elements in the Caribbean, you know, very much imagine him as, above all, a figure of, of the voodoo, but his last letters talk in very Catholic terms about him being crowned with thorns. Well, and we should talk about his legacy, it's, it's such an ignominious end to a life in June of that same year when, when he dies in that shivering, cold, lonely, dark place. Two of his followers, one notably being Decellene, the man who was chafing under his decision to, you know, let, live and let live with all of the nationalities and colors and creeds on the island. He unites with Pétieu, and they rise up against French occupation, and it's a, this time, you know, they're not going to have this. They're not going to take Napoleon being in charge. What happens after they rise up and what makes him actually, Decellene is the man who becomes the hero of Haiti? Well, again, this is something, you know, which very few people will ever have heard of or started in school, but there is an enormous French army of occupation now in Haiti. And in the Wars of 1803, when these two lieutenants of L'Uvetuel are taking on the French in an extraordinary campaign, the French lose more soldiers than they do 12 years later at Waterloo. That's amazing. Just save that again. I mean, just, this is, this is guerrilla, still guerrilla warfare. This is still, you know, outnumbered, you know, ridiculous to one. So that was figure again. The French lose more troops in the campaign against Decellene and Petiton in 1803 than they do 12 years later at Waterloo against Duke of Wellington. Yeah, and it, it's a great victory. There is a final set piece battle at Vettier, and in December, the French who have been wholeheartedly beaten in a formal set piece battle take the only option open to them, which is to evacuate Sandemann, and the next year the Revolutionary is established a new independent and free nation, Haiti, the world's first black republic. And I think the first post-colonial state, am I right in that? I think that may be right. I can't think of anything else that would have happened there. It's the first time the European colonialism is rolled back by the force of ours. Extraordinary moment. It is an extraordinary moment. And the legacy in the world is interesting because as I say, you know, Louverture is celebrated in the United States. He's a huge figure. He is a figure in Haiti, but often a clip by Decellene, who has seen as a man who ultimately beat back foreign forces. There's an interesting thing going on in France, though France has, I think they've acknowledged that bad things happened under French occupation. But there are demands for reparations, which they are saying they will have nothing to do with. It's a formal apology, I think, that's ever happened from France either. No, well, it's interesting. Macron, of course, being a pragmatist has had said different things at different times. One time he did make a speech which is something we haven't heard in this country ever made, which is a formal declaration of the atrocities of French colonialism. It's not sorry. It's not sorry, Louverture. But it's a declaration. OK. So he's gone further than the British have gone. OK, I was going to ask. Then in the more recent campaign, slightly backpedal, when he was facing the challenge from the right, began speaking in very different terms, and there was a lot of sort of Islamophobia and so on. But you do think, even with that declaration, he went further than the British have ever have. Yes, as I said, there's this very, very good study of this. And we've talked so much about the British empire in this podcast. We've said very little about the French empire, but this New York article, which I would recommend everyone on the subject, goes into that whole story about the French failure to face up to the atrocities. And I think before we end this, we should say very firmly that these two wonderful books are books that we have to recommend to all our readers. CLR James written in the '50s, "Absolute Classic of Post-Pollonial Literature." More recently, this wonderful biography of Toussaint-L'Overture by Sudhir Hazir Singh, who speaks and teaches at Oxford, it's called Blacks. Spartacus and it won the Wilson Prize for History in 2021 and it was completely new to me. I knew none of this before I opened it. It's also beautifully written and all these lovely quotes that we've produced about him being like a tiger and everything. This is all from Sudhir Hazari Singh's wonderful work. So I completely recommend this to anyone that wants to follow this up because I suspect this will be a story that very few of our listeners know, although it is, as you say, it is known in the States. It is known in a little in France and it is known to people that follow Wittlifjean and Carlos Santana who have respectively wrapped and sung about it. Why can't they show? Why can't they show it? Anyway, so we end as we began. Thank you very, very much for listening to everyone's offended by our terrible, terrible pronunciation of everything. I'm sure we're going to get a post bag of that. Be kind. Be kind. Anyway, thank you very much for listening. That is all from me, Anita Arden. And me, William Durinpool.