Toussaint Louverture DBQ

Mark Porter

11/17/14

How should Toussaint Louverture be remembered

Good leaders have traits that make them great.  Looking at great leaders during history, we can determine these qualities.  Abraham Lincoln is one of the best examples of a good leader, his three most important qualities were toughness, moral leadership and honesty. Lincoln displayed these traits by granting slaves freedom in the U.S. and maintaining the country during a bloody civil war. Toussaint Louverture, leader of the Haitian Revolution, possessed these qualities and used them in similar situations as Lincoln which is why he is considered a great leader. He should be remembered as a liberator of slaves, however he was a great military commander and ruler too.

Toussaint committed most of his free life to liberating the slaves of the French colony Saint Domingue. He knew what it was like being a slave having grown up in servitude and he did not want any of his country-men to suffer that fate. When news of the french revolution reached the island and fighting broke out, Toussaint worked as a doctor to the troops (Doc. A) and convinced slaves to fight for their freedom. By 1793, he led an army of 4000 slaves. Then, when the new revolutionary French government abolished slavery, Toussaint ordered his troops to stop fighting and support the french, showing his dedication to eradicate slavery. (Doc. A) After that, in 1797, Toussaint wrote a letter to the French Directory (the government which replaced the one that abolished slavery) saying that it was impossible for saint domingue to institute slavery again. Toussaint backs up his argument by saying “They bore their chains when they knew no condition of life better than slavery.” (Doc. B) meaning that the slaves were only slaves because they didn't know what it was like to be free and they would rather fight than go back into slavery. Finally, Title II, Article 3 of the Saint Domingue Constitution Toussaint wrote, there cannot be be slavery and all men are born, live and die free and French. (Doc. C) Toussaint was dedicated to freeing his country from slavery, putting that before all of his other goals.

Before he was a liberator of slaves, Toussaint was a strong military commander who led the revolution to free his people to claim Saint Domingue. His best strengths as a leader were his ability to recruit people to join his cause, make tough but necessary decisions and maintain an organized army. Toussaint was a natural born leader, earning his freedom from slavery, owning a plantation himself and later gathering men to join in the revolution. An example of a hard decision he made was killing one of his high ranking commanders, Hyacinthe Moyse. Moyse oversaw the Northern Department of Saint Domingue and did not like Toussaint’s labour laws, nor his friendliness with white planters. (Doc. E) This dislike grew to a state of hatred and Moyse along with many of his men went on a rampage, killing any white man they came across in the Northern department. To mend this, Toussaint stopped the massacre, made Moyse’s men kill themselves and had Moyse put to death. This sounds cruel however it was necessary to ensure that people remained loyal to Toussaint and that peace was kept. Finally, Toussaint kept his army ready for anything the European oppressors threw at them by teaching them  European style and guerilla style fighting. (Doc. A) Toussaint was a great military commander which helped him to liberate the slaves of Saint Domingue.

As ruler of Saint Domingue, Toussaint worked to ensure the prosperity and success of the country. To maintain order and keep up the production of coffee and sugar flowing out of Saint Domingue without slave labour, he helped to create the Saint Domingue constitution in July, 1801. The constitution abolished slavery and put in a new system that stated each plantation will represent a family and the owner of the land was the father. Also, the father must share the revenue with his family to ensure everyone is treated equally. (Doc. C) Then just 4 months after the constitution was put into action, Toussaint issued a new proclamation that contained rules about plantation farming. The basis for this proclamation was to enforce and make clear the laws that were detailed by the constitution. For example,one part of the proclamation is: “Vagabond Cultivators arrested...shall be taken to the commander of the quarter, who will have them sent to the gendarmerie [local police] on their plantation.” (Doc. D) This rule backed up the family based model of the plantations, also making it clear that it was not acceptable to wander to different plantations. By putting the proclamation into effect, Toussaint did become less popular, however, he did it to maintain order and function as ruler of Saint Domingue.

Although Toussaint was a formidable military commander and a great ruler, he should be remembered for his greatest work, liberating the slaves of Saint Domingue. He used the power and influence gained by being a leader to accomplish this. Also, all of his actions were done for the sake of ending slavery. Great leaders are remembered for their most important contributions to society, so there is no doubt Toussaint Louverture should be remembered for liberating the slaves of Saint Domingue.

Revolutions of 1830 an 1848

Recently in class, we learned about the revolutions of 1830 and 1848. The overarching question we were trying to answer was, "were the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 really failures as many historians have concluded?" To gather the information we did a lot of things. First, we looked at a map of the revolutions to see how they developed. Next, we created a scale to judge what is considered a success or failure and in between. Our scale looked like this: failure/revolution was crushed and many died, partial failure/revolution failed however some new ideas took root, neutral/revolution didn't fail or succeed, partial success/many of the revolutions goals are met but there are a lot that weren't, success/all of the revolution's goals are met and the government is changed. Then, we observed the quote by Klemens Von Metternich "When France sneezes, Europe catches a cold." We concluded that this quote meant that the ideas that come out of France and specifically the French Revolution spread across Europe and create revolutions. After that, we analyzed key documents to find out everything about our assigned revolution. then we fit the primary sources into three different categories based on what they are about: Goals, opponents, outcome. Finally, we placed our revolution on the scale of success we made earlier to answer the essential question.

The revolution my group was assigned is the French Revolution of 1848. Obviously the setting was France, 1848. The goal of the revolution was to end the monarchy and stop Louis Philippe's corrupt government. The lower class was fighting against the upper and middle classes as well as Louis Philipe. The rebels wanted to end the recession caused by Louis Philipe and put in place a republic. They eventually got rid of Louis Philipe and voted in Louis Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte's nephew into power. This success for the revolution was short-lived, in 1852, Louis Napoleon took absolute control over France and became an emperor. During this time of turmoil, many primary sources were formed. From the documents of the Revolution of 1848 in France, "Citizens:royalty under whatever form , is abolished; no more legitism, no more Bonapartism, no regency." This quote describes the goals of the revolution saying how they wanted a republic and to get rid of the old ways. Also, another primary source, the Proclamation of 14 January 1852, is Louis Napoleon describing how he made France great again. To teach the rest of the class about the Revolution of 1848, we created a survey monkey. Our survey monkey was a test of all aspects of the revolution and our class did well on it.

 

A screenshot of our results, most people got this question right.

The Revolutions of 1830 and 1848 were as much failures as historians say they are. first, in 1848, the Frankfurt Assembly was brought together to make a constitution for the German states. They could not make one and the assembly was dissolved under threat of the Austrian military. Hundreds were killed and many imprisoned and thousands fled their homes to get away from Germany. Next in Hungary, 1848, the revolution got rid of their emperor Metternich and caused the Austrian government to make some reforms, but, no long after, the resistance was crushed and thousands of revolutionaries were killed, imprisoned or forced to leave. Finally, the Decembrist revolt of 1825 was a disaster. When the people tried to rise up against Tsar Nicholas, he fired upon them and beat his own people to the ground. These three revolutions were horrible failures. I think the answer to the essential question is accurate however, there was some success in the revolutions, they made people think differently than ever before and stood up for their beliefs.