41 pages • 1 hour read
C.L.R. JamesThe Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1938A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 13-AppendixChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary: “The War of Independence”
Bonaparte devised an intricate plan to capture the colony by dismissing the Black leaders, disarming the populace, and enacting “special laws.” He avoided mention of slavery, wanting his soldiers to think that they were fighting for the ideals of the Republic; only Leclerc knew otherwise.
In February 1802, French attacks began in coastal cities around the colony. Due in part to Toussaint’s conflicted views, many of Toussaint’s generals faltered, unsure how to respond. Le Cap, Port-Républicain, and Santo Domingo fell in quick succession. Leclerc soon controlled most of the coastline. Only Toussaint, Dessalines, and Jacques Maurepas offered meaningful resistance. Weakened by earlier controversy, Toussaint struggled to rouse the Black laborers to support his cause.
Leclerc enacted another of Bonaparte’s plots, sending Toussaint’s two sons, who sailed with Leclerc from Paris, to invite his surrender. Indignant, Toussaint simply encouraged his sons to choose between France and San Domingo for themselves. Alarmed at mounting sickness among his soldiers, Leclerc wrote letters to French officials requesting reinforcements and supplies. When reinforcements did arrive, he coordinated a multi-pronged attack on Gonaïves. Outnumbered, Toussaint, Christophe, Maurepas, and Dessalines employed evasive maneuvers. The attack failed.
French General Étienne Desfourneaux, who had previously served under Toussaint, wrote persuasive letters to some of Toussaint’s subordinates inviting them to join the French forces. Several surrendered, leading Maurepas, then surrounded, to grudgingly surrender. In March 1802, Toussaint and Dessalines set up camp at the mountain fortress of Crête-à-Pierrot. Toussaint took a small force to cut off Leclerc’s line of communication with Le Cap, while Dessalines stayed behind. French forces soon began an assault on the fortress. Hearing of Dessalines’s plight, Toussaint turned back before reaching Le Cap. Before he arrived, Dessalines and his troops broke through the French line and escaped.
Wanting to fulfill at least some of Bonaparte’s commands, Leclerc arrested and deported Rigaud to France. His actions further angered the Blacks and Mulattoes. Still hoping to somehow maintain relations with France, Toussaint implored Bonaparte to send another general to replace Leclerc. Others, especially Dessalines, were already committed to attaining independence. His strength dwindling, Leclerc won over first Christophe, then Toussaint, on the condition that liberty be maintained and the Black generals be kept in their posts. Biding his time, Dessalines also submitted to Leclerc.
French soldiers fell sick by the thousands. Leclerc, wanting to advance Bonaparte’s plans, ordered Toussaint’s arrest on falsified charges. Toussaint was deported to France, where he was mistreated, imprisoned, and denied trial. After passing the winter in a cold cell, he died in April 1803.
Following Toussaint’s departure, insurrections among the Black laborers mounted, though they lacked leadership. Dessalines delayed making a move, not wanting to fight the other Black generals still loyal to the French. In July 1802, news arrived that slavery was being restored in other French colonies, fueling more uproar. Leclerc panicked, wishing Bonaparte had delayed a little longer. Several Black generals remained loyal to Leclerc, though they threatened to turn on him at the first hint of slavery in San Domingo. Working together, Dessalines and Alexandre Pétion, a Mulatto leader, finally came out in open opposition to the French.
Leclerc died of yellow fever in November 1802; the Vicomte of Rochambeau took over his command. Rochambeau asked for and received reinforcements from France, while Dessalines and Pétion raised support across the colony. Both sides now started campaigns of extermination, with the French feeling that it would be easier to bring new slaves from Africa than to force the Blacks then on the island back into servitude.
After a long and grueling conflict, with France’s resources depleted by war in Europe, Rochambeau resigned and abandoned the colony in November 1803. The leaders of the revolution drafted a declaration of independence, and Christophe was crowned Emperor of the new Republic of Haiti. In early 1805, under the influence of English diplomats, who wanted to increase the rift between France and Haiti, Dessalines carried out the extermination of the remaining Whites in Haiti. James concludes by comparing the situation of the slaves in San Domingo to that of the then-contemporary Africans in 1938, who stood at the edge of possibility.
Appendix Summary: “From Toussaint L’Ouverture to Fidel Castro”
Writing 24 year later, James divides the search for national identity in the West Indies between Toussaint’s time and that of Fidel Castro into three periods: the 19th century, the interwar period, and the postwar period.
The 19th century marked the abolition of slavery. During this period, West Indian nations modeled themselves after European ones, with Haiti taking France as a model. At the same time, some West Indians became increasingly aware of the influences of their African heritage, a phenomenon James refers to as Negritude. The second period saw a continuation of this trend with the writings of James Garvey and George Padmore, who popularized Pan-Africanism. James cites a poem by Martinican poet Aimé-Césaire that envisions Africa, not Europe, as the source of salvation for West Indians.
Following World War II, West Indian nations continued to struggle to overcome the lingering trappings of colonialism, including sugar-based economies. James sees a new trend in writers from this period: “The West Indian of this generation accepts complete responsibility for the West Indies” (414). No longer in search of a national identity, they proudly express the identity that they have created.
Chapter 13-Appendix Analysis
More than anywhere else in the book, the final chapter is notable for its detailed accounts of the Black revolutionaries’ military maneuvers, including ruses by Dessalines and Toussaint. By highlighting the genius of the Haitian generals, James supports his claim that their success was not merely due to chance or climate. His frequent reference to specific geographic locations justifies the inclusion of a map at the beginning of the text.
The final chapter is also marked by extensive quoting from the letters and documents of Leclerc. These excerpts demonstrate a steadily increasing level of panic and desperation on the part of the French invaders. James positions these excerpts to serve as a concluding commentary on the mistaken colonial concept of European superiority.
After recounting the circumstances of Toussaint’s death, James comments once more on Toussaint’s persistent sense of French identity, both for himself and for the colony of San Domingo. To James, Toussaint’s sense of association between France and San Domingo is a relic of colonialism that discounts the significance of the Haitians’ African heritage, a theme he expounds on in the Appendix. Historically, the gap between the first publication of The Black Jacobins in 1938 and the publication of the Appendix in 1962 saw many African countries begin decolonization with assertions of independence, just as James’s hopeful ending anticipated.
